


Come And Fly With Me

by autumnclouds (orphan_account)



Category: Victorious (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Hybrids AU, Slow Burn, beck and jade are soulmates, everyone’s a bird hybrid, he might not like that either, jade's a transfer student, kinda cliche, neither of them like the soulmate idea, romance-y, she might not like that
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:24:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 27,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22740181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/autumnclouds
Summary: Beck Oliver has never believed in soul mates, but not because he's the only one in his friend group without one. He obviously has one, because his soulmate mark says so, but he's not really bothered that he hasn't found his and that plan is not about to change. That is, until Jade West enters the stage.
Relationships: Andre Harris/Tori Vega, Beck Oliver/Jade West, Robbie Shapiro/Cat Valentine
Comments: 41
Kudos: 51





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Special note for this AU: everyone is a bird hybrid, hence they will have their wings out all the time and also have longer nails than normal humans do, which can cause some damage if provoked. Other than that, they look like humans!
> 
> \- References for main/supporting characters ↓ (please copy the links if you're curious to see what kind of bird they are!)  
> Jade ✦ Leucistic Red Kite ꒰ https://tinyurl.com/verf5sm ꒱  
> Beck ✦ Brahminy Kite ꒰ https://tinyurl.com/syca3xo ꒱  
> Andre ✦ Harris Hawk ꒰ https://tinyurl.com/u6cd88y ꒱  
> Cat ✦ Ural Owl ꒰ https://tinyurl.com/rcyuqxe ꒱  
> Robbie ✦ Red-Tailed Hawk ꒰ https://tinyurl.com/qtchejp ꒱  
> Tori ✦ Barn Owl ꒰ https://tinyurl.com/s8y457p ꒱

The idea of having your own destined soulmate branded on you from the moment you were born was plain ridiculous to Beck, because what kind of twisted rule in the world they lived in decided that _hey, to prevent our species from declining, soulmates should be a thing!_

It was dumb, because soulmates weren’t limited to only one species internally.

For example, his childhood friend, Andre, was a hawk, yet his soulmate, Tori, was an owl. There was no indication that bird hybrids were about to die out, but he wasn’t going to argue with the flow of the world.

Being the only one in their small group of friends to not have found his soulmate yet, Beck wasn’t very bothered by that fact, given he _does_ have his soulmate mark— though his friends begged to differ (because they cared about his happiness, and they strongly believed he would be happier after finding ‘the one’.) 

Tori even offered to set him up with many of the girls she knew in the student council, and he had to turn her down after his disastrous date with Meredith, a kind of white Cockatoo, who had repeatedly amazed him by parroting (pun not intended) his opinions and not having one of her own. She had been sweet, for sure, but he wasn’t someone who appreciated his partner not having her own opinion.

His parents even had a hand in this matter, having pestered him repeatedly to enroll in Fairywood Arts Academy after he had graduated high school, being that it was the most prestigious school for any and all bird hybrids, well-known for its grade A students and… its high percentage of successful soulmate hunting. 

He had ended up giving in, despite having wanted to go to Wingsh, or Vale Academy, because all his friends had enrolled in Fairywood Arts instead, and it meant that he didn’t have to move out of Rosewood Region to the east or wherever. Rosewood Region was the Central Region, boasting of its huge size with endless shopping malls and ever-changing food shops coming in. In the end, the school turned out to be alright, despite its spotlight on their successful soulmate hunting percentage.

* * *

As always, it would be an unusual sight if he were not used to it by now— the sight of all his schoolmates flying to the academy and landing precisely in the custom-built stadium that worked as the students' landing zone, that is, and how they looked like a whole puddle of black and dirty browns mixing together, with the occasional splatter of color when a parrot or peacock showed up.

Choosing a spot that was farther away from the others crowding the stadium, Beck circles down onto the ground, flapping his chestnut-colored wings once, twice, before he folds them back into their arch on his back, tucking them in neatly so he wouldn't block the way of anybody else's landing.

“Morning!” A chipper voice greets him seconds after the moment someone lands next to him, making him turn with a quirked eyebrow.

His grin forms immediately at the redhead that lands gracefully beside him, folding and tucking in her wings before fixing her hair with her hands. “Morning, Cat.”

With Cat always comes Robbie, who follows his soulmate towards the ground with level flaps on his wings. He gives Beck a salute, smiling and adjusting his glasses after grounding himself. “Hey, Beck.”

“Hey, Robbie…” He trails off, noticing the other two figures making their downward spiral towards the trio, waving to them with another grin. “Tori, Andre.” 

“Hi guys!” The ever-cheerful brunette greeted once she has her wings tucked back neatly, her soulmate landing beside her with a nod of his head and his usual ‘what’s up?’. “Did you hear? We have a transfer student coming today!” 

Surprises murmurs of ‘oh really?’ and ‘what are they like?’ echoed through the small circle of friends, all looking to the peppy class president for more information on the mystery student. It wasn’t often that a transfer student arrived, but there were a few coming in and it was always fun to see a new face.

Pulling out her phone, Tori goes through her apps until she finds what she wants, opening her mail to find the most recent one from the teacher in charge of new arrivals. 

“Here, it says that she’s supposed to come in before lunch because she’ll be flying in from the Evergreen Region, and that’ll take a few hours given we’re in Rosewood.” 

They all nodded in understanding— it was tough flying from any other regions to the central one, and Evergreen was in the East, one of the second most farther regions from Rosewood. To fly all the way was going to be a chore, regardless of the new student’s flying abilities, and she was bound to be tired once she reached.

“Thank God she can have lunch upon arriving then! Ooh, think we could show her around?” Cat piped up, bouncing happily on her feet in excitement at her suggestion.

Tori shrugs with a smile, nodding her head. “Sure, that sounds like a good idea!”

She turned to Beck after, giving him a look he knew all too well, and he avoided her gaze before she could get any ideas about setting him and the new student up. He moves away, sliding behind Andre like his friend could protect him from his girlfriend’s plotting.

“Tori… No no, no no.” He warns from where he was partially hiding behind Andre, as if being out of her area of sight would help her forget about helping him find his soulmate by pushing him to date every single girl until he felt his soulmate mark react.

That was the kicker, of course— you get a mark from your supposed soulmate, and then when you meet them, it’s supposed to react to your ‘bond’ and… do stuff. He’s not exactly sure what kind of stuff, but he doesn’t want (or need) his soulmate mark to react to just any random girl in their academy.

“You haven’t even met her yet!” The brunette retorts, throwing her arms up in protest towards Beck, fixing him with an exasperated stare. “Maybe you’ll like her, and hopefully she’s your soulmate?”

 _“You_ haven’t even met her yet too, Tor,” he explains slowly, raising both his arms in surrender as she puts her hands on her hips and almost looking like a mirror image of his mother. Honestly, despite all of them being the same age, Tori was the socialite in their group, and she liked to be in the middle of her friends’ affairs— not in a bad way, she just wanted to help. But he didn’t need her help, even if he appreciated it, he didn’t want another situation like the one with Meredith.

“Oh come on, Beck! If you’re just going to go off the mark you have, it means your soulmate has white wings… and not many hybrids have white wings.” She huffs, rolling her eyes as they started moving towards their first class before the bell rang. 

"It's not _fully_ white, Tori." Is his retort, which she doesn't hear because almost instantly, Beck finds himself alone as Tori linked her arm with Andre and Cat had already hooked arms with Robbie, but all he has is a fond smile on his face when he sees how happy they all looked. He glances down at the mark on his right wrist, the image of a single white feather tipped with the lightest shade of brown gazing back up at him as usual, except… it looked like it was kind of glowing? He pauses in his steps, staring incredulously at it.

_Did soulmate marks glow?_

“Uh… guys? Is it just me, or is my mark glowing?” He asked, his friends turning and walking back over to him in curiosity. 

“It does kinda look like it’s glowing.” were the chorused replies he gets from the group, and he has to stop his surprise from rising. Did that mean his soulmate was near? After all the effort he had put into not caring? It couldn’t be, maybe the mark was just being wonky. Yeah, it was just being wonky.

“Guys?” Cat’s voice rang out in the air, before he felt her small hands pulling him back from where he had been standing. “Move back, move back!” 

The strong impact shakes the surrounding ground lightly while they all gaped at the new presence in front of them, who had crashed in almost like a meteor of white. Unperturbed by their stares, the girl folds in her ivory wings— dashed with light and tan browns— after shaking them off, and then she regards them with a steely gaze.

Beck forgets how to breathe for a moment, stunned by the pale blue oceans that were her eyes, and the fact that her plumage matched exactly with the mark he had on his wrist. He’s speechless, like all his other friends at the new arrival, before Tori detaches herself from the group and walks over to the new girl.

“Hi! I’m Tori, you must be the transfer student. The teachers said you weren’t coming in till before lunch… Would you like me to take you to the office, um…?” She trails off, unsure of what to call her since she didn’t know her name.

The girl, who had been staring at Beck (was he being obvious he was staring?), looks over at Tori, folding her arms across her chest.

“Jade. Jade West, and yeah, that’d be nice.” 

As Tori led her away to the office and telling them to go ahead to class, Beck has to physically shake off his stupor, almost tripping over his own feet when he moved next to Andre. He almost doesn’t hear his friend asking if he was alright, forcing himself to nod as he chanted a mantra in his head.

_Just because her plumage matched his mark didn’t mean they were soulmates._

_Just because her plumage matched his mark didn’t mean they were soulmates._

_Just because her plumage matched his mark didn’t mean they were soulmates._

And even if they were, it didn’t change anything, not even his view on soulmates. So what if she was gorgeous, even more so than he’d have thought? So what if her eyes were so magnetic, he couldn’t take his off hers? So what? So _what? So what?_

_Just because her plumage matched his mark didn’t mean they were soulmates._

* * *

Tori can’t resist stealing glances behind her at the new student, who let her eyes wander all over the fancy interior decoration of the hallways they strolled past as she gives introductions to what the rooms scattered around were. There were so many questions burning on the tip of her tongue, like  _ why were her feathers the exact same as Beck’s mark, did she have a soulmate, and why did she transfer here? _

Not realizing that Jade had already noticed her staring and was looking back with one raised eyebrow, the brunette continued with her one-way express train of thoughts until the other student decides to snap her out of it. Literally.

“Hey, Tori,” she huffed, clicking her fingers in front of the brunette’s face and smiling involuntarily when she yelped in reply, clearly startled by the sudden noise and movement. “You look like you’re about to burst open with questions. I can answer those that aren’t too personal.”

Eyeing Jade with a look that was part skeptical and part hesitating, the class president decided to take the dive instead of hesitating since she had already kind of given her the go ahead.

“So… why did you transfer here?” She asks first, choosing the most tame out of all the questions she had and hoping she didn’t sound too nosy.

“My dad recently got promoted and his company shifted him here to Rosewood, so my mum and I just tagged along,” Jade shrugs carelessly, since the question didn’t really bother her. It wasn’t all that personal. “Also something about the chances being higher to find my soulmate and garbage like that.”

Oh. She was like Beck in that sense, Tori realises immediately. She didn’t seem to hold soulmates in high regard, and the brunette wonders if that could be a topic for the both of them to bond over. She’s never really seen hybrids so distrustful about the whole soulmate issue, it was almost as if they were made for each other.

_ Wait a minute. Pause. Rewind and… what? _

“... Chances being higher to find your soulmate…” Tori begins, furrowing her brows with one finger up in the air as she processed the words over and over again. “Wait, so you  _ haven’t _ found your mate yet?”

“Not yet, and I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. Honestly, I think that it’s dumb to find someone and have your mark react, then immediately spring towards each other with open arms.” Jade rolls her eyes, grimacing at the thought of it whilst shaking her head lightly. 

“But… But say you find your soulmate here,” The brunette protested weakly, feeling helpless because Beck already didn’t believe in the 'soulmate crap’, as he always so kindly put it, and for Jade to be the same way… It felt hopeless. “Wouldn’t you want to give it a chance at least?”

She sees the female cast her blue eyes skyward again in thought, before she meets her gaze levelly with another devil-may-care shrug. “I don’t know, maybe. If he or she’s pretty enough.”

Laughing at the scandalised look on Tori’s face at her words, she shook her head almost fondly. Never had she seen such an easy target for her sarcasm; she thoroughly enjoyed how mortified the other looked. The class president was too easy to tease, she decides, a wide grin overtaking her features as she strutted towards the overhead intricate sign that had ‘Office’ carved into it.

“You were just teasing, right?” The female hurries towards the other with a worried look etched on her face, which only grew more concerned when the other hybrid didn’t answer her. “Right? Jaaade!”

* * *

In all honesty, his all-too-new curiosity burned a little too brightly in the pit of his stomach while their teacher droned on about the importance of how lyrics and rhythm affected songwriting. Beck chews on the end of his pencil absentmindedly, his thoughts swirling around in his head as he struggled to tamp down the sudden need to know if he and Jade were really soulmates.

“Mr. Oliver!” 

He snaps his head up at the teacher barking his name, scrambling to stand up as he’s asked to recite what was just being said. The male glanced towards Andre, who discreetly scribbled something quickly in his notebook (Lyrics? Rhythm? Shit, he really didn’t listen.) He’s barely saved by a soft rapping on the door, and then it sliding open to reveal Tori.

_ Thank Tori.  _ Beck sends up towards the sky, almost falling to his knees to worship the brunette, if it weren’t for the fact that one, the whole class would think he was nuts, and two,  _ Jade West  _ was right behind Tori.

“Sit down, Mr. Oliver.” Mrs. Finnegan snaps, to which he quickly complies so he doesn’t look like a fool, and she turns her attention to the pair standing by the doorway. “Yes, Ms Vega, I see you have a new face with you.”

“This is Jade West, she’s the new transfer student and the office staff said she could join us for the first period.” Tori explained, stepping aside and gesturing towards the female behind her, who quirked her brows at how snobby the teacher seemed. Still, she gives the older lady a nod in greeting as she’s asked to enter the class and introduce herself.

Standing at the podium, she faces the class, her ocean eyes flitting towards a certain male hybrid almost immediately for a second before she focuses her gaze on the whole class. Not being one for giving away too much information in a group setting, she keeps her introduction short. “I’m Jade West, it’s a pleasure.” 

“Alright, Ms West, you can take a seat…” Mrs. Finnegan trailed off, casting her eyes through all the available seats and sifting out any ones next to problem students… a good influence was always good. “... Next to Mr. Oliver. Please raise your hand, Mr. Oliver.”

Beck freezes momentarily, quickly snapping out of his reverie and raising his hand jerkily. He tries to calm his breathing as he watched Jade toss her raven hair over her shoulder and walk towards him, trying— with much difficulty, to his chagrin— to remain calm and collected.  _ Be cool,  _ he urges himself and he manages for a second, until she takes a seat beside him and an irresistible scent wafts past mercilessly.

It doesn’t take him a second to recognise that the aroma was coming from Jade, making him shift his focus to the lesson as the grip he had on his pen tightened every passing second.  _ Crunch. _

“... Shit.” He mutters under his breath, glancing down to find that his focus had cost him his pen, the writing utensil now rendered useless given it had cracked down to where the ink was. Setting it aside, he digs into his pencil case for another, only to find nothing. Why hadn’t he gotten more pens? Right, because he thought he had only needed one. 

Grimacing to himself, he rests his chin on one hand, feeling sulky that he’d ruined his only pen and was now unable to take any notes (not that he ever took notes, but at least it looked like he was listening while scribbling nonsense down) when he feels a light tap on his shoulder.

He looks up into the oceans swirling in Jade’s eyes, and he can literally  _ feel  _ his breath getting knocked out of him as he freezes in place whilst she stared at him questioningly. 

“Here,” she whispers, not wanting to catch the teacher’s attention as she held out a pen, smiling lightly. “I’m Jade, by the way, not sure if you caught my introduction just now.”

“Thanks, that’s a big help.” He whispers back, uncertain why they were speaking in such hushed tones and why it felt so intimate, but he returns the smile anyway despite his confusion. “I’m Beck.” 

She doesn’t mean to, but the corners of her lips tug upwards a little bit more, and he has to turn around before he does anything he regrets, because she’s  _ so, so gorgeous,  _ especially with that smile, and she smelled  _ great _ and— something flashes past the corner of his eye, making him turn slightly to catch what was moving.

A single chestnut-colored feather, one inch long, rests on the pale skin of her left wrist, where Jade was busy untangling the ends of her long hair. Freezing instantly, he stares long and hard at the mark, wondering if he was hallucinating, or if it was all a bad dream. Obviously, he stares too long, because she notices, giving him a pointed look and raising a brow in question.

“Sorry, I just got distracted by how pretty your hair is.” Throwing out the lie without hesitation so she didn’t start asking questions, he tried to wave it off nonchalantly, hoping she wouldn’t point out the fact that he was a  _ bad  _ liar. 

As doubtful as she seemed of his horrible lie, she doesn’t say anything, just turns back and listens to the teacher drone on about lyrics. Embarrassment catches up pretty quick, though; his ears are already burning by the time she stops looking at him, and he slinks downwards in his chair, wishing he could just  _ melt  _ into a puddle of goo and not have to deal with this anymore.

The bell couldn’t ring fast enough, Beck throwing all his belongings into his bag and not caring whether or not they were packed neatly. He needed to get  _ out _ of there as quickly as possible so he didn’t end up dying of embarrassment, and he’s gone before any of his other friends can even turn to him and strike up a conversation.

Jade quirks an eyebrow at how her seatmate had fled so quickly, before realisation hits her that he  _ had not  _ returned her pen. Pursing her lips and feeling slightly miffed about that, she turned to Tori, knowing that she had seen him in their little friend group earlier so that meant they were friends and hung out together. Tori, who sees the peeved expression on her face, immediately feels concerned.

“Jade, what’s up?” 

“I lent Beck a pen, and he just left without returning it.”

“Huh, that’s weird. He usually waits for us to go together to our next class.”

“Ugh, I want my pen back.”

“Don’t worry, you’ve got Improv with us next too, just tell him to give your pen back then.”

“He’s a pen thief.” 

“I’m sure he just forgot, Jade.”

“Nope, he’s a pen thief.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> edit: 7th march 2020 - joined chapter 1 & 2 together. (also known as in i’m dumb and i accidentally deleted the comments too with the chapter and now i’m sad) 
> 
> I wanted to put this off until I at least had a few chapters written out, but... I couldn't wait. I was going to make Jade an eagle until I saw the beauty that was a leucistic Red Kite, and the kicker was that they had blue eyes. Safe to say, I couldn't resist. Please enjoy!!


	2. Chapter 2

What had the world come to? Beck Oliver, for the first time in his life, was _flustered._ He hadn’t even been this disconcerted ever since he was five and had fallen out of a tree he’d gotten stuck in; that had only been because it had been too sudden and his mind couldn’t catch up to what was happening even as he stayed motionless on the ground. 

_What_ was he doing? He had always managed to remain calm throughout everything that happened in his life, so what was so different about this now? Just because Jade’s mark matched the exact color and pattern of his feathers didn’t mean anything, because there were many other students out there with feathers the color of soft chestnut, like… like— _oh wait, no, he was the only one._

Palming his face in exasperation, he couldn’t help but vividly remember the patterns of the feather that was printed neatly on her wrist, letting out an audible groan in frustration; he was one of the first ones to arrive in Sikowitz’s class and that meant nobody could see the normally chilled out hybrid lose his mind over the one matter he had always prided himself in being lofty about.

He straightens up, trying to reason himself with thoughts along the lines of ‘why are you letting a single girl ruin what you’ve believed for your whole life’ and ‘so what if she’s your soulmate’, all of which sounded like he was playing a broken record just to convince himself that he wasn’t _that_ affected by the appearance of his supposed soulmate.

Too lost in his thoughts, he doesn’t notice as other students started to trickle into class, including his tiny circle of friends who were guiding Jade along and telling her all about their Improv class and their insane teacher, Sikowitz. Tori was eagerly gesticulating to the paler brunette, who seemed pretty amused by the other’s dramatized actions, nodding along while she listened to the class president explain how the seating in this particular class worked.

“So basically, it’s free seating! But we usually just sit together since we’re friends,” Tori happily concluded her explanation, her hands finally returning to her sides from all her wild gesticulating before she shoots the other a hopeful look. “Do you want to sit with us?

She contemplates the offer, mainly because Tori and Cat are both too peppy for her—she abhors anybody with nauseatingly perky personalities, yet she hasn’t felt uncomfortable with them so far. That had to count for something, right? Pursing her lips, the brunette gives a nod of her head once she’s thought for a moment and weighed the pros and cons (she didn’t know the school yet, Andre seemed pretty cool, Tori, Cat and Robbie were decent, and she still had to get her pen back from Beck, the pen thief.)

Well, she hoped she wouldn’t regret her decision. “Sure.” 

Clapping her hands in delight, Tori led her over towards where Beck had already taken his seat at the back of the lecture hall, where they all took their usual seats and habitually leaving the seat next to Beck’s empty— mainly because none of them sat there despite sitting close to him; it wasn’t done out of malicious intentions. She wonders if any of them realized it, raising an eyebrow but not questioning it as she took the seat next to Beck, staring at him for a moment before noticing that he hadn’t seen them come in yet.

Since the teacher hadn’t arrived to class, she takes the opportunity to survey the male beside her, raking her eyes from his fluffy hair and handsome features down to his lean build and tan skin. It was already an obvious fact that he was gorgeous, but she hadn’t given him as much a second glance since the moment she landed in Fairywood Arts. As much as her parents had wanted her to ‘find her soulmate and live a happy life’ by attending this school, there was _no way_ she was just going to accept a random stranger as her partner for life, especially if it was some dumb person that couldn’t hold a civil conversation with her. She’d seen enough in her old school where two people found out about their matching marks and being all over each other in the next second; she didn’t think that being soulmates meant that you had to inherently accept one another immediately. 

Besides, she wasn’t blind or stupid, her mark had begun tingling when she had started her descent towards the ground earlier, and there was only one person there with wings the exact same shade of chestnut that colored her wrist. She’d also seen his mark— the one where the white tapered off to a soft brown, much like her feathers did. It didn’t take much to put two and two together, but just because they were soulmates didn’t mean that she was going to be all loopy and giddy over finding her soulmate. Neither did it mean she would dissolve into a giggling mess (like she’d seen back when she was ten, her friend just being outright dumb tittering and draping herself all over her newly-found soulmate) in front of him because he was attractive.

Deciding that she’d stared enough at the boy who was still very much swimming in his thoughts, she extends an arm to tap him on the shoulder lightly, wanting his attention. Immediately, he swerves in his seat, face crumbling in disorientation at having gotten disturbed while thinking before he sees her, a smile forming instantly, quickly, before it gets replaced by stoic calmness. 

“Jade. When did you come in?” He asked, brows furrowing, voice sweet and husky; she tries to brush off the tingles zipping down her spine at how she adored the way he sounded, giving him a tight smile back so he didn’t see just how he had jumbled her emotions.

“Tori showed me the way just now.” She replies easily, giving a casual shrug before she makes the mistake of looking him in the eyes, and suddenly she’s lost in the limpid pools of chocolate, so deep and brown that she feels as if she’s been tossed into another different dimension.

The door slams open then, effectively jerking the pair out of their reveries—Beck turning to face their teacher who had just entered whilst Jade cast her gaze towards her desk wildly, heart beating fast and mind racing.

What the _hell_ had just happened?

* * *

Neither of them get much time to brood over what had taken place; Improv passes way too fast, Beck’s busy with practicing his scenes with Andre for their acting-slash-writing class and Jade has her next class, tech theatre, with Tori and Robbie while Cat pouts about being separated because she has to go to her costume designing class alone. 

After saying a (rather tearful on the redhead’s part) goodbye to Cat, Jade follows Tori to their next classroom, noticing just how many heads turned to look at them— specifically, the young lady walking beside her, and she has to pause for a moment to think. Was Tori popular in the academy? It definitely made sense, because she was always nice and kind, offering a helping hand to whoever it was that had trouble (honestly, the amount of times they’d stopped on the way to class because a teacher was struggling with their load of papers was _ridiculous_ to Jade) and she was, for the lack of better words, overwhelmingly pleasant to be with.

Sure, she was really peppy, but once Jade had let it slip by accident how she disliked just how perky some people could be, Tori had dialed it down and the pale brunette appreciated that quite a bit. She thinks her earlier decision to sit with their little circle was a good one, because Tori turned out to be more decent than she’d first thought, and Cat was… well, she was adorable and she gave off a warm, sincere vibe that made Jade want to (God forbid she was developing maternal instincts over a fully-grown woman) protect her.

Funnily enough, the pair makes it to class just in time, slipping in and taking their seats next to each other as Tori recounted a story from last week about how Andre had sprayed soda from a shaken can all over himself, Robbie and Beck and the three of them had to borrow the academy sweatshirts and matching sweatpants. While Beck and Andre both looked adequately dashing in the hideous grass-green outfits, Robbie had ended up looking like some kind of sad christmas tree (without lights, Cat had enthusiastically squealed, making Robbie smile in delight) and the image had been enough to make Jade chuckle whilst the poor boy was left sputtering excuses.

As it turns out, their usual lecturer is off on early maternity leave, which meant that they had a substitute teacher coming in— resulting in the substitute giving them a free study period since he had no idea where their teacher last left off (he wasn’t actually part of the arts department, it turned out, he was from the athletics department and he was the only one free to take her class). Tori excitedly takes the time to find out more about Jade, asking her questions that she was comfortable with answering, like which school she transferred from, what Evergreen Region was like compared to Rosewood, if she’d been to the other regions yet.

Rolling her eyes with a flourish out of habit, Jade answers her questions easily, she came from Eastwing Academy, Evergreen was just full of trees, trees and _more_ trees; she’d been up North to Glacier Plains where it was basically snow upon more piles of snow. Then, she regards the brunette seated next to her with a quirked eyebrow. “Now that those little questions are out of the way, just ask me what you really want to ask me.”

Tori has to blink a few times in surprise before she gives in to her surprised humor, giggling a little before shaking her head. “I thought I was being subtle, but I guess I got found out, huh?”

“You were being _way_ too obvious, if you ask me,” Jade answers flippantly, pushing her dark tresses back with one hand before laying her hands on her lap again giving her new friend another look. “So? I think you’ve been wanting to ask me this since just now when you were showing me around.”

“Just now, when you said that if your soulmate’s pretty enough you’d give it a try?” Tori asks carefully, like she was standing atop a sheet of thin ice and one wrong move would send her crashing into the underworld; Jade has to laugh— because if it had been anybody else besides Tori or maybe Cat, the brunette wouldn’t have hesitated to tear them apart for trying to pry into her personal business.

“I mean, if I meet my soulmate, I’m always hoping they’re a looker in case their personality bores the life out of me.” Shrugging in a carefree manner, Jade leaned back into her seat, regarding Tori with her oceanic eyes and the slight traces of a smile lining her lips. The tanner brunette’s furrowed eyebrows tell of her confusion, practically screaming the question ‘how would you find your own soulmate boring?’

“First of all, I’m only tolerant of most people around me,” she sighs wistfully, it’d been a long time coming since her discovery of this fact, and she’d gotten too used to it that she sometimes forgets that it seemed weird to other people. “So if they don’t mesh well with my personality, at least I can be comforted by the fact that they’re good-looking.” 

“...Oh.” Tori utters, blinking and trying to form coherent words and piecing her thoughts together. On one hand, it did make sense, but on the other hand, she didn’t exactly want to set up Jade with Beck if she only wanted him for his looks. Her uneasiness radiates off her in waves, the brunette squeezing her palms together as she racked her brains in search of a response to say.

“Tori,” Jade calls out softly, giving her a quizzical look before she can’t stifle the humored snort she’s been hiding, shaking her head at the female’s confusion as she started shaking quietly with laughter. “I was just pulling your leg, Tori. Of course their personality matters most.”

She can’t help but heave a sigh of relief of _thank God Jade isn’t as superficial as I thought she was,_ tossing up mental kisses towards whichever higher being it was up there being so nice and kind and—

“But I know what you’re trying to do. I’m neither blind nor stupid, and I definitely _am not_ going to be with Beck just because we’re soulmates.”

 _Why?!_ Tori screams up to the skies in her head, wanting to throw her hands and wail in despair because she had come so, so close to finally making stubborn, petulant Beck change his opinion about the idea of soulmates being ridiculous.

“I haven’t even said anything yet!” She settles for retorting instead, but her pout gives away the fact that Jade had hit the nail on the head. “He’s nice, give him a chance. You might like him.”

“Yeah, I’m sure he’s nice,” is the dry comment she gets in return along with the brunette’s pretty, blue eyes rolling skywards. “Listen. I’m not saying I don’t want to be his friend, but I definitely don’t want the two of us to be shoved together just because of some stupid marks on our wrists.”

“They’re a symbol of destiny!” Tori protests, doe eyes wide and pleading as she clasps her hands together (resulting in yet another eye roll from her companion) and shoots Jade the best puppy-eye look she can muster. “C’mon, pleaaaaase. You can just give it a try.”

“Destiny, my foot. I’m not going to let some stupid soulmate mark dictate who I love, and that’s not changing anytime soon. I’d appreciate it if we could move on from the subject of you trying to match me with one of your friends who _just_ so happens to be my soulmate.”

The murderous look on Jade’s face is enough for Tori to know she should stop pushing it before she lost her new friend for good (and maybe get a foot in her bum, which she wouldn’t appreciate at all), so the perky brunette leans back in her chair with a resigned ‘okay’ before she changes the subject to how the school seemed so far to Jade.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> edit: 7th march 2020 - I hope you all won't be surprised because I decided to join chapter 1 and 2 together so it'll make for a longer read. Please enjoy chapter 3 and tell me what you think!! I'd love to hear from all of you ʕ•ᴥ•˵ ʔ
> 
> PS. I found an artwork that closely resembled how I imagined Fairywood Arts to be like, except the whole region is bigger than in the picture. Just in case you don't know, this whole world is made up of floating islands! 
> 
> I, for the life of me, can't figure out how to make a clickable link so here, for your viewing pleasure, please copy the link:  
> https://www.artstation.com/artwork/2N0ev


	3. Chapter 3

In all honesty, Beck still wasn’t over the reality that his soulmate had transferred seemingly out of nowhere into his school (and his life, that was the bigger concern) and it kind of sucked that his opinion about soulmates had to be challenged like that out of the blue, though the fact that Jade was drop-dead gorgeous made for a silver lining; her personality, on the other hand, didn’t seem to be as easy to fall into. With a frown marring his handsome features, he brought a hand to his hair, the long locks soft enough to thread his fingers into as he exhaled a sigh, not paying attention to Andre whilst he yapped (very nicely) at the other actors for what emotions he wanted to be portrayed more in the script that had been given to their group for acting — also writing, he honestly didn’t know the deal was with the two names for a single class — lecture.

“Beck!” A warm hand clapped the back of his neck unexpectedly, making him jerk around physically with his eyes imperceptibly widened in surprise. Andre looked at him weirdly, brows furrowed out of concern as he took a seat beside his friend, folded his arms on his desk and put on a matching frown. “Are you okay, man? You’ve been zoning out the last few minutes.”

It took him more than a while to answer, his right hand habitually pushing his hair back while he tried to think of an excuse that didn’t run along the lines of ‘oh, I’m just thinking about Jade because she ruined my opinion about the whole soulmate thing’ because it was, first and foremost, stupid, and secondly, Andre would come to the conclusion that he was in love with Jade and knew it all along.

“Nothing, man. I’m fine.” He exhaled at last, waving a hand in dismissal and hoping that his facade was enough for his best friend to not push him about it. 

Andre withdrew, but not willingly; eyes lingering on his stupidly dashing friend for a long pause before they flickered towards where their fellow actors were doing their revised scenes zealously. They were very into it, something that the hybrid appreciated about this school—almost all the students were very passionate about honing their skills and getting more knowledge on how to better improve themselves for when they put themselves out into the world. With a quiet sigh, he regarded the actor beside him, who was still staring blankly at the script. On one hand, he really wanted to know what was bothering his best friend; on the other… Well, if Beck didn’t want to talk about it now, maybe he would later — it was already a well-established fact that Beck was mulishly stubborn, something he’s gotten the honor of knowing since their friendship started during their childhood days, and he knew better than to push his friend’s buttons and have it blow up in his face. 

Still, Andre knew that Beck was stressing heavily over something; as a friend, he had a duty to make sure he helped him no matter what. A gentle reminder that Beck wasn’t alone could do him some good, maybe take some of the weight off his shoulders.

“Hey, you know you can talk to me about anything, right?” The question’s tone is light, not too probing, and Beck immediately felt a little bad for brushing his friend off so quickly. He gave the other student a slight nod, reaching out to bump his fist against Andre’s shoulder and giving him a light smile.

“Yeah, I know. Thanks, Andre.”

* * *

Lunch rolled around far too quickly, Jade noticed too late when she glanced down at her watch, which announced the end of their one hour lecture. Halfway through Tori’s earlier tirade of questions, Robbie had started tuning out before he pulled his desk a tiny distance away and stated rather offhandedly he was just going to study the free period away because he ‘wasn’t comfortable being in the middle of girl talk’, especially since his and Jade’s friendship was only in the first stages; it would be awkward for him to have a solid input on her opinions (he was never really someone opinionated, anyway).

_ Nerd  _ had been her first thought, but she’d peeked a glimpse of his notes before he hunched over them to start writing more; she’d have to ask him for those later on afterwards. Tori’s already packing away her studying materials as the teacher wrapped up her lecture, beckoning Robbie to come over and glancing at the pale brunette as if considering something. From what she’s seen of the other’s personality, she could already predict what her next move is.

As expected, Tori sidled up to her with her bag in hand, giving her a light smile with Robbie trailing behind her. “Hey, Jade, do you wanna join us for lunch?”

Out of habit, she sucked in a deep breath whilst she contemplated her options for the umpteenth time today, then nodded only after a few seconds this time.  _ It wouldn’t hurt,  _ she reasoned internally,  _ and I still have to get my pen back from Beck.  _

The thought of  _ him  _ made her frown lightly, she quickly scraped the image of warm chocolate eyes and olive skin that formed in her mind just at the mention of his name. Whatever that… was that happened back then, it had resulted in her forgetting to get her pen back, and she’d be damned if she let it happen again.

“Jade?”

She glanced up at the brunette who was waiting eagerly beside her table, vocalising a soft grunt before she hoisted her bag onto her shoulder and left the lecture hall with them.

* * *

Andre quickly gathered all their classmates once the clock struck twelve — ever the responsible and unofficial leader of their particular class — before he wrapped up every minuscule detail of their script quickly, pointing out that they had to set aside some of their own time to practice their lines for it to be perfect. Whilst the other students streamed out once they were dismissed, he turned to Beck, who was thumbing through his slap page indifferently, bag already packed and set on his table. Shouldering his bag, Andre whistled lowly, effectively gaining his friend’s attention, to which he jerked his thumb towards the door, silently asking if he wanted to leave and head out to grab food.

Beck gave a nod, slinging his bag over one shoulder lazily before he locked his phone, slid it into his pocket and then followed Andre out the door. They weaved their way through the lunchtime crowd with quiet ‘excuse me’s and ‘sorry’s, before Andre led Beck towards his locker, snapping his fingers when he recalled something important. 

“Hey, man, I’m sorry but I forgot I have to go submit this sculpture draft for my class later on today. You know how mad the teacher is for that class.” Andre gave him a guilty look, palms pressed tightly together as he pointed his joined hands at Beck. 

“It’s fine, I know how crazy your teacher can get about the ideas thing,” Beck agreed, using his hands to make invisible quotes for ‘ideas’, rolling his eyes. From the countless stories that Robbie and Andre had spoken of their sculpting lecturer, it was a wonder that the pair hadn’t gone insane yet. Needless to say, their professor quite enjoyed torturing his students with the essential task to come up with a mind map for their next sculptures; if the mind map wasn’t quite aesthetic (as quoted directly from the professor’s words) enough, they were to redo it repeatedly until he was happy with the results that ‘showed their creativity’, which both his friends found extremely dumb.

He waved goodbye to Andre, who hurried off with the large, colorfully-inked paper in his hands towards where the sculpting classroom was, before he turned and headed towards the large cafe that was built because it was too tiring for the students to keep flying out of the academy grounds just for lunch period. As he made his way towards the back of the school where the cafe was, he spied the other half of their friend group, heading over to where Robbie looked a little out of place as a seemingly heated conversation between the three girls took place. When he drew nearer, he could see the three of them turn to the sole male expectedly, before Tori’s familiar voice quipped, “well, what do you think, Robbie?”

The decision to save his friend from what seemed to be quite a dilemma was quick; he stepped forward and announced his presence to the group with a laid-back yet cheerful, “hey guys.” 

“Beck!” His curly-haired friend cried out in an exuberant manner that was, frankly, quite uncharacteristic of him, and spoke volumes of just how much he wasn’t in his comfort zone with their topic of conversation. Before any of the girls could round their questions on him, Beck pointed towards the food truck that was parked to the side of the large space and a long queue started to form.

“Y’know, before we delve into any deep conversations, maybe we should get some food first.”

It doesn’t take even a second for all parties to agree to the suggestion; the small group moved towards the end of the line before Tori turned to him, smiling in a way that made him feel like he was about to disarm a ticking bomb. He cast a prayer up to the gods, hoping fervently that it wasn’t going to be about his soulmate again, please, please, please don’t let it be about my soulmate, I beg you, god. 

“So, Beck…” The brunette started, tossing a glance Jade’s way (which made Beck kind of confused, honestly) before her grin started to turn slightly maniacal, pausing between her words for more emphasis while she kept glancing towards the paler, taller brunette. “You said before classes started that your mark… started… glowing…” 

Okay, so Tori was either hinting something, or being weird. He was pretty tempted to chalk it up to the latter, though he knew that she was already onto him about the little secret he had attempted to hide (which he was, apparently, doing a very poor job at). Tori was just more observant out of their circle, of course she would be the first to link their marks together — more so because she knew what his mark already looked like, and probably saw Jade’s when she was guiding her to office earlier. 

The more worrying concern was if Jade knew about them being soulmates, and with Tori’s excessive winking and giving their new friend the side-eye as clear hints, there was a high possibility that she didn’t know. Or maybe she did. Sometimes, his friend’s logic and actions were ineffable, something he had learned not to question after their friendship had formed.

For the most part, if Jade knew about it, she either had a really good poker face and was an excellent actor, or she was absolutely clueless as to just how ridiculous a spectacle Tori could be when she put her mind into it. Once his friend realised that what she had planned on hinting at wasn’t working, she puffed her cheeks in resignation and pouted sullenly, crossing her arms as they waited their turn in line. He watched the process of Tori giving up on trying to hint at Jade being his soulmate, chuckling quietly to himself once she had settled down and decided to join in the civil conversation Cat was having with Jade about fashion. 

Robbie turned to him just then, smiling since the girls were busy with their much more comfortable (to him, at least) chat. “What’re you getting for lunch, Beck?”

“I’m not sure, maybe a burrito or something.” He answered, giving a careless shrug of his shoulder before he saw Cat peeking at them with an expression that clearly screamed ask me what I want to eat too! 

“Cat,” he began, a grin already forming on his lips before she even turned around with an excited gasp, mirthful brown eyes sparkling. “What are you buying for lunch?”

She ran both hands through her crimson tresses in faux thought, before she gave a tiny laugh. “I’m going to get a triple decker sandwich! Ooh, Tori, what’re you gonna get?”

“I think maybe a chicken salad. Andre probably wants a burger and fries.” The brunette replied with a matching laugh, the glint from before returning to her eyes before she turned to Jade naturally. “Jade, what are you having for lunch?”

He doesn’t know why, but he was suddenly very interested in the ground when her blue eyes suddenly found his, as if he would have the answer to their friend’s question. She gave a shrug then, glancing towards the menu board that had illegible writing on it, squinting lightly before she turned her gaze back to the group. 

“I guess a sandwich or a burrito sounds good. Which is better?” The question was innocent enough, but it was enough to spark a light debate between the friends as to which meal was better or more filling.

* * *

Thankfully, Cat had distracted Tori from further prying during the first half of lunch — the pair had squealed on and on about the newly released boots from a brand that Beck couldn’t recall — Andre had joined them just five minutes later, thanking his girlfriend for the hamburger with a sweet kiss before tucking into his meal hungrily. Robbie pulled him into a conversation about their sculpting class, which Jade seemed very interested in, for some reason. She apparently had wanted to join sculpting class, but it was full and she’d ended up in photography instead, which she was fine with as well. 

He felt a shoe nudging against his then; judging by the sharp pointy end of said shoe, it was very likely Tori’s (he looked up and saw her throwing him a glance, one that said  _ you two have the same class, say something,  _ quite loudly.) He didn’t know why she wanted him to say something, because she should already know that his stance on the whole ‘soulmate’ thing wasn’t going to change just because his soulmate had shown up now. Still, he  _ did  _ kinda  _ sorta  _ want to be friends with Jade, because she seemed like a cool person to hang out with. And they were going to have photography class together.

“I’m in photography too,” he piped up rather lamely, looking up from his burrito with furrowed eyebrows at her. She answered this with a non-verbal quirk of one perfectly arched brow, and he cast his eyes back down to his burrito, feeling slightly daunted (just slightly, because he wasn’t someone who got intimidated easily.) 

Another look into her charming blue eyes somehow makes him less scared — maybe it was the mirth that was dancing lightly in then, maybe it was because they were the windows to her soul that didn’t seem all that mean and scary — and he put his burrito down, an easy smile curved on his lips as he asked his question.

“Would you like me to show you the way to photography class after lunch?”

She stared at him for a long pause, but he somehow knew better than to back down or look away (because that just meant he was intimidated, and he  _ wasn’t _ afraid of the tough exterior she exuded.) Then she nodded just slightly, a tiny smile formed on her soft lips, and somehow that little action sent an unknown fluttering throughout the entirety of his body.

Beck hid his growing smile in his burrito, trying to ignore the curious look that was coming from Tori and finished his food quickly. She’d ended up choosing a salad instead of a sandwich or burrito; forking it slowly into her mouth as the rest of them conversed, her eyes drifting over to his again. 

Time seemed to freeze then, or just moved slower, he stared dumbly at her before she looked back down to her salad, finishing the rest of it as quickly as she could without choking. Once she was done, she shouldered her bag and stood up, the empty container in hand whilst she stared expectantly at him.

Quickly, he gathered his belongings and an empty foil wrapper, said a swift goodbye to his friends with Jade — and before he knew it, he had to stumble after her when she strolled away from their table, hips swaying. He doesn’t know if it’s a good or bad thing that he had a negative stance on soulmates, but she was making it very difficult to keep said stance whenever she even _looked_ at him (and he really, really wanted her to stop staring into his soul with those gorgeous eyes, yet he also wanted her to keep looking at him). 

Life was pretty difficult at this point. Once they were in the empty hallway leading to the lockers and different classrooms, she turned to him, and he tried  _ very  _ hard not to gape about how her skirt exposed a silver of her bare skin as it swung. 

“I think we need to talk.” Her velvet voice pulled him out of his wandering thoughts, and his first thought is that she wanted to murder him for daring to look at her. He paused, a few feet behind her as he stared, wide-eyed at the brunette who decided that their distance was too physically far for this conversation. She moved closer, her combat boots making loud, accompanying thuds to his erratic heartbeat, and suddenly he found himself having a face full of Jade when she came to a stop right in front of him.

She’s tall, the top of her head coming right up to his line of sight, and he’s scrutinised by those blue eyes before she huffed a breath and stared at him harder, if that was possible.

“Listen. I don’t know what you’re thinking,” she started, arms crossed over her chest as he stared back into limpid pools of blue; drowning in them as he readied himself for a tight slap to his face for any insult he’s shown to her. “But I just wanted to put it out there that I think we both already know we’re each other’s soulmate.”

Beck took a moment, just blinked once, twice and attempted to stop the swirling thoughts in his head.  _ What did that mean? Does she want to get together? What do I say? How do you tell your soulmate that you’re averse to being together just because you were meant to be by the hands of god? _

“I personally am of the opinion that soulmates are… stupid. I’ve seen enough girls just melting into this mushy mess when they find  _ the one,  _ and I am  _ not  _ going to be like them.” She carried on, not caring about how his whole world suddenly came to a grinding halt in his head. “That doesn’t mean you’re not cute, though. You are. Just… this soulmate thing is stupid, and I won’t love you just because you’re supposed to be mine.”

Rendered absolutely speechless by the same opinion that he’s been having since he was a child, he could only stare helplessly at her — she didn’t seem about done with her rant anyway, so he just listened.

“So I’m sorry if you were expecting your soulmate to screech in joy and throw her arms around you, because that’s not going to happen.” Jade paused then, as if suddenly realising that he hadn’t spoken a word since she’d started. She folded her hands together, no longer having her arms wrapped around herself almost protectively, and she pointed at him with a light smile. 

“But you seem pretty cool to hang with, so I’d be… happy if we could be friends.” 

He swallowed, pressing the lid of his chaotic mess of thoughts back on (because she was looking at him  _ again _ with those blue eyes and she expected him to answer) and nodded wordlessly. It took him a few seconds before he could even string a sentence together, but he gave her a smile, hoping it didn’t look too weak and pathetic.

“Actually… I don’t have a positive opinion on soulmates either, so y’know, it’s… it’s not really a big deal. The whole falling in love the second you see each other is dumb, I think, and I would be happy if we could be friends too.”

The smile he received for his lame words was blinding; her luscious, pink lips stretching to reveal pearly whites in a pretty smile. Her eyes twinkled with unspoken joy (was she that happy that he wasn’t going to ask her out?) and she looked towards the ground before she met his gaze again; he tore his eyes away from hers swiftly.

“By the way, can I have my pen back now?” 

Startled, confused brown eyes met questioning blue ones, before he recalled that he  _ had  _ borrowed her pen back in music class. He fished into his bag for the writing utensil, gripping it tightly before he pulled it out and offered it to her with a sheepish smile. 

“Sorry for holding onto it, I kind of forgot.” His words land him on the receiving end of a quirked eyebrow and an expression that called him stupid in a hundred and one different ways. The minuscule hint of a smile playing at the ends of her lips, though, that spoke differently — his heart hadn’t stopped thumping loudly against his rib cage; he didn’t even know if it was because of how  _ breathtaking  _ she looked or the words she had said.

However, before he can mull over it again like some kind of obsessed freak, her voice hooked him out of his thoughts.

“Thanks. Now take me to class.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just a few notes to end this chapter! firstly, i've changed most of the college/university into an academy instead because i think the timetable of classes doesn't suit most college/university schedules and i wanted it to be more realistic. it's definitely one step up from high school, even if it doesn't seem like it! (i've also never went to university so idk about timetables there honestly) second, i hope you guys don't mind the changing perspectives, because i think it provides more insight into everybody's thoughts. also, i've merged chapters one and two for easier reading (and i also accidentally deleted the only comments i had, that made me really sad because they were really sweet comments ;_;) 
> 
> please do tell me what you think! comments are always nice as motivation!! (´∀｀*)


	4. Chapter 4

Who knew that having his own opinion thrown back at him would make him feel so befuddled? It wasn’t like some kind of riveting piece of information, Beck reasoned to himself, so why did it feel this weird to hear it said back? He fiddled with the camera resting in his hands, thumbing over the raised buttons of the device as he stared wordlessly at the pale brunette standing before him, wondering which god found it absolutely _knee-slapping hilarious_ to have him paired up with his own soulmate during the one class they had separate from their group of friends. Out of all the times they had this class, it was suddenly a good idea to assign _permanent_ partners? Right after what she had said, too. 

It was most likely a conspiracy against him. At the very least, it started to seem that way to him. His teacher was probably in on it with the gods, given how swiftly she had him paired up with her and requested him to show the new student the ropes upon their arrival to class — in his opinion, just because he was one of her best students didn’t mean he had to be the one to guide Jade — but he did, anyway, since they were already permanent partners for the rest of the academic year.

After having led her over to where they always picked up their digital cameras, they had flown out to the large expanse that was the academy’s garden, where most of the students took pictures (they weren’t allowed off the academy grounds for reasons unknown to him; he suspected it was because of seniors goofing off instead of pouring their hearts and souls into improving their photography.) 

He watched, stretching his wings out and tucking them in as she thumbed through the different settings on her new camera, before he handed her a marker to write her name on the large, laminated (and tacky) label stuck into the clear pocket on the casing. Her handwriting was closer to an illegible, cursive scrawl than neat and tidy, but it was charming; he found himself mindlessly tracing it over and over again with his eyes, her name repeating like an addictive melody in his mind for a prolonged moment until she waved her hand in his face.

“I’ve been calling you for a whole minute, Beck.” She gave him a weird look, camera cradled lightly between her slender fingers whilst her baby blues regarded his distracted expression. “I know my handwriting’s ugly, you don’t have to stare that hard.”

It was on the tip of his tongue, an automatic reply to her snark, that her handwriting was charmingly beautiful just like she was, but he managed to swallow the words before he said anything he could regret. 

“That’s not true,” he protested instead, cocking an eyebrow at her before he cupped his camera in one hand to gesticulate with the other. “I’ve seen worse. Yours is just slightly illegible, but I think as long as you know how to string words together, you’d be able to read it.”

A smile adorned her porcelain features involuntarily, and she ducked her head to hide it out of habit. She probably had to give him her gratitude for always somehow making her feel better about herself, even about something as minuscule as her handwriting, but the tell-tale shutter of a camera made her look up instead. 

He hadn’t meant to do it, but his hands seemed to have a whole other mind of their own the second he saw her light smile — the shutter was pressed before he could even blink, surprising both of them — then she stomped over, face darkening slightly as he pulled his camera behind him protectively in case she wanted to smash the device into itty-bitty pieces.

“What was that for, Oliver?” Jade hissed, her eyes turning almost icy as she crossed her arms, her own camera tucked away swiftly into its casing the moment she went to confront him. It wasn’t that she didn’t like her pictures taken, but that it was abruptly taken and by _him,_ of all people. What if she ended up looking weird in the picture? Or worse, she had an ugly expression on, and now he had it on his camera roll forever unless it was deleted.

“Sorry,” he apologized quickly, sincerely, and somehow, her anger dissipated almost immediately once she looked into his brown eyes. Most people who angered her apologized because they didn’t want to tick her off, but it was a first to see someone so sincerely apologizing when she was being irrational about something as minor as a picture. Not just any picture, though. 

She uncrossed her arms, the furrow that knitted her brows together easing slightly as she scowled and thrusted one hand out, palm up. “Show it to me.”

Beck stared dumbly for a moment — _hooray, she wasn’t going to murder him_ — before he stepped back slightly, eyeing her with cautious anxiety. He had lots of pictures he’d taken on this camera, and she definitely seemed upset enough to delete everything out of spite. “Okay… but please don’t smash my camera or anything. I’ll delete it if you want, I swear.”

The male brought his camera forward slowly, his wings fluttering lightly in anxiety, ready to take off on the spot should she show any signs of attempting to break the precious device. He thumbed through the options until he could get into the gallery, then selected the picture he had just taken of her. Immediately, his heart thumped loudly against his chest, and he suddenly forgot how to _breathe_ — he was just awestruck by the very image of _her_ looking downwards with _that_ smile gracing her lips.

_She was ethereal._

Too stunned to even say a word, he flinched slightly when she took the camera out of his hands once she realised he wasn’t going to move anytime soon; her fingers brushing against his in the lightest of touches. Yet, it felt like he had been set on fire from the tiny contact, warmth rapidly spreading through his body from his fingertips. 

He licked his lips, shaking his distracting thoughts off whilst he eyed the female before him carefully, watching her stare at the picture with a slight frown on her face. He wasn’t sure what to think of her expression, but the slight pout on her lips was very distracting to him and — he seriously needed to stop, it wasn't like he was a teenager anymore and had those weird moments where everything just automatically turned sexual in his head.

After a few moments of dead silence from his partner, Beck was already expecting the worst in terms of her reaction. She’d probably ask him to delete it, and the most beautiful picture he’d ever seen would perish from the world, never to see the light of day again. 

Suddenly, he found himself the subject of her ocean eyes once more, and he had to remind himself to breathe whilst awaiting her verdict. Obviously, he could choose to keep the picture since it was _his_ camera, but he preferred to respect her opinion since it had been a candid shot of her. And if the reverse happened, he wouldn’t be happy if she kept a potentially ugly candid picture of him.

“... fine, you can keep the picture.” She drawled at last, sighing as she tucked loose strands of her locks behind one ear before she stared him down again, looking fierce once more, handing his camera back to him. “But you can’t show it to _anyone._ If you do, I will personally rip your wings off and make sure you can’t fly anymore, pretty boy.”

Her threat was paired with a smug smirk, but the one-sided quirk of her full lips only sent an unknown shiver down his spine (that certainly wasn’t out of fear).

“Okay. I promise I won’t show anyone.” He replied coolly, attempting to slow his breathing so he didn’t seem too panicked by her natural attacks on his person. 

She stared at him again — she really _had to stop,_ or he’d go _insane_ — before she slipped her camera out of its casing with a flourish. “Well, now that that’s settled, show me the best spots for this class, partner.” 

* * *

Somehow, for some reason or another, his concentration was thrown off the entire hour with Jade as his partner. It wasn’t his fault, if he thought about it, because she had been very _distracting_ throughout class. 

After the whole issue with the candid photo, he had thought it would be awkward for at least half of the lesson — he was very quickly proven wrong when he showed Jade one of his favorite spots in the garden to take pictures. The brunette was _very_ into capturing the best shots she could of the stunning flora, and while it wasn’t that difficult to figure out how a camera worked, she had asked him every infinitesimal question under the sun. Whilst he felt burned out from answering her, it had been endearing to see her blunt personality take the backseat whenever her curiosity sprouted. 

That sparkling willingness to absorb new materials paired with the fact that Jade looked really, _really_ good (almost like a goddess) with a camera in her hands and the wind ruffling her long curls — it had been enough to melt most of his brain. And his sanity.

Thankfully, he hadn’t been too far gone by her mysterious charm, for he managed to hold his tongue whenever the urge to suddenly wax poetic about her ocean eyes and rosy lips occurred with an equally sudden need to hold her against him while the world collapsed at their feet. (She probably wouldn’t have appreciated neither the sentiment behind his words _nor_ his actions if he did do it, though.) 

Her content smile at the end of their class had been priceless, despite the slight disappointment in her eyes that it was over so quickly. She did, however, instead of strutting off when class ended, turned to him and asked what his next one was. Of course, he answered her because it would have been rude not to reply, but as fate would have it — they had their next class together as well, he found himself walking her indoors before he even knew what was going on.

On their short flight back to the academy building, he learnt that when her mood was good, she talked a lot more about herself. In the span of seven minutes, he was fed several short tidbits of personal information — she had a younger brother who was extremely annoying (yet endearing, he saw the corners of her lips curling upwards), she enjoyed her coffee black with two sugars, she liked cheesecake despite not liking any other desserts, and that it wasn’t the best idea to cross her, because she once punched a boy in the face when she was eight all because he had refused to stop trying to kiss her for a childish dare between him and his friends. Whilst he couldn’t approve of violence, he agreed that the boy deserved the punch since trying to kiss someone who wasn’t willing was a stupid idea that shouldn’t be done. (he got a smile in return, making him sort of delighted he voiced his opinion)

They landed in the stadium quickly after, and he led her towards their next class with languid steps, finding it rather easy to tell him about himself in return. He was an only child, he preferred savory food over sweet food but enjoyed indulging in the occasional dessert, and he didn’t really _do_ anger or rage — something that made his companion look at him with an expression best described as half disgusted and half confused, because who the hell didn’t feel angry or frustrated at times?

As he launched into his explanation that he just had a more relaxed demeanor than the average person (hybrid, in their case), they found themselves in the dance hall, and immediately Tori pushed herself up from where she had been leaning against the wall, giving them a wave. Her eyes immediately lit up in suspicion when she spotted the slight smile curling his lips, one that she knew meant he was feeling rather content and happy. 

“Hey guys, what’s up?” She asked, shooting him a glance that could only be read as ‘you’re going to tell me what happened, was it something good?’ as she clutched the strap of her large monstrosity of a bag, giving both of them a smile. 

Thankfully, he didn’t have to answer the prying question because Jade did instead, giving a slight shrug, tilting her head towards him. “I’m just judging Beck because he apparently doesn’t get angry or frustrated. What’s up with that?” 

“Well… yeah, I’ve never really seen Beck get mad before,” was the confused reply, and he had to roll his eyes because _why_ was it so weird that he didn’t get angry? 

With a tiny sigh, he slipped his bag off his shoulder, tucking it neatly against the wall before regarding both females with quirked eyebrows, both hands raised and waving slightly to emphasise his point. “I just don’t think it’s necessary to get heated over small stuff. That’s just wasting energy that I could’ve spent on something more important.” 

“Yeah, but say if you’re having a bad morning,” Jade started, following him and placing her bag next to his against the wall before placing her hands on her hips to give him a look. He was starting to get used to those, and if he were to be honest, he kind of liked them. “And you go to get coffee, only to get it splattered all over the front of your shirt because of some bumbling fool. You’re telling me you wouldn’t get cross if that happened?”

He had to chuckle at the scenario painted by her, raising his eyebrows and looking at Tori, who ducked her head and looked off to the side in shame. Gesturing to the brunette who pretended to not be paying attention, he smiled and shook his head. “See, that actually happened when I first came into this academy. I walked into Improv and bam, got my coffee on my shirt because Tori walked into me.” 

Jade raised her brows in surprise at this, crossing her arms as she looked over at the other brunette, who was still attempting to pretend that she wasn’t involved in the conversation. “So you didn’t yell at miss goody-goody here?” 

“I’m not a goody-goody!” Tori protested, whirling around to gasp her words at the taller, smirking female, to which the latter only raised her brows as if to challenge her to that notion. 

“No, I didn’t, because she tried to rub it off my shirt with her wrist.” He continued, stifling laughter at the memory. “It was kind of funny since you can’t get stains out by doing that. Andre walked in then and almost flipped out because he thought I was putting the moves on Tori.”

Ashamed, Tori twirled the ends of her hair around her fingers with a pout lacing her lips, whining softly, “I didn’t have time to think back then! I was just sorry it happened, I felt really horrible I ruined his shirt and wasted his coffee.” 

A deep chuckle came from Jade, who seemed way too amused by the story. She wasn’t even bothering to hide her smile anymore. “You know, I can’t imagine Andre flipping out, and I still can’t believe you didn’t throw Tori out a window for wasting your money and your coffee.”

“Wait, you’d _throw_ me out a window if that happened?” The dismayed look on Tori’s face was so hilarious, Beck hid his growing laughter behind the back of his hand. 

“I would, because it’d make me feel better about losing my coffee.” She answered with a bright grin, watching as Tori’s mouth gaped open more in horror. Oh, she absolutely _loved_ messing with Tori.

“Yeah, I was surprised because he yelled really loud at me for touching his girl,” Beck shrugged, a wide grin overtaking his face now when he remembered being confused over the male being upset at him for something he didn’t do. “But you should really believe that I’m not the type to get easily upset.” 

To her credit, Jade nodded with a thoughtful expression, biting her lower lip in thought — she really shouldn’t do that in front of him, it made his mind churn out images he didn’t really need right now — before she looked at him with mischievous eyes. “Maybe I should try to get you mad.”

He couldn’t help it, he laughed at her words, ducking his head down. Just being able to banter back and forth like this made the _whole soulmates but let’s be friends instead_ situation seem better. She was so vastly different from what he was used to with his other two girl friends, while Cat and Tori were able to speak their opinions just fine, they did so nicely so as to not offend people — that wasn’t to say Jade was _rude,_ she was just more straightforward and didn’t beat about the bush. It seemed almost like a reckless thing to do, but he sort of liked how she didn’t feel the need to sugarcoat her words when asked for her opinion.

“I’m not sure if that’ll happen,” he replied once his chuckles had died down, giving the brunette another grin (he was definitely smiling a lot more, wasn’t he?) He really wasn’t the type to get mad, he had never been, and her just wanting to challenge that was amusing. “From experience, not much has gotten me mad.” 

Jade tilted her head to the side, a smirk forming at his words. “Is that a challenge I hear, Oliver?”

The mirthful twinkle in her blue eyes made him forget to breathe _yet again_ — she really had to stop doing these things to him, it wasn’t fair at all — he has to wet his lips to bring himself back to reality before he got too distracted and found himself the subject of Tori’s suspicions later. 

“It’s not really a challenge, per say… but you can _try_ to get me upset? As long you don’t try to anything violent or underhanded.” He paused when he caught her expression morphing into one that looked way too devious for his liking. “Okay, maybe that’s a bad idea, can we cancel this?”

Her laughter rang pleasantly like a thousand tinkling bells in his ears, and he had to bite his lip to stop himself from smiling and encouraging her further. Their eyes met again, the rest of the classroom immediately melting away and leaving the both of them in their own space. 

“Hey guys!” Tori’s cheerful greeting made them jerk their gazes from one another, looking over to where the rest of their classmates trickled in along with their friends. 

Three different greetings sounded in reply, Beck opted to give his friends a boyish grin whilst Jade drawled out a lazy ‘hey’. Cat bounced over to the brunette, excitedly wrapping her arms around Jade as if she hadn’t seen her in a thousand years.

Jade shook her head in exasperation — perhaps already getting used to the petite redhead’s antics — but they’re all cut off by the instructor entering the room and getting their attention with two short claps.

“Alright class, today we’re going to explore the genre of salsa!”

* * *

It was _definitely_ a conspiracy against him, Beck decided as he drew out a slip of colored paper from the hat the instructor held out towards the boys. Some god out there had decided it was _hilarious_ to relentlessly toss him and her together in whichever classes that had pairing activities when they both had the same sceptical opinions on soulmates. The slip of paper spelled out _Jade West_ in neat letters that smiled merrily up at him whilst he cursed whichever god it was that seemed to be having way too much fun making sure they both couldn’t be away from one another.

On one hand, he was rather relieved, because dance class _always_ had pairs and his last one had been a very giggly blonde who seemed to like him way too much and always flirted with him, despite the fact that her soulmate was in their class as well. She, much to his chagrin, liked to claim they had the best chemistry and liked to touch his hair and arms — he had always plucked her hand off him like she contained a disease.

Tori had asked her once why she liked Beck so much when her own soulmate was less than two feet away from her, her answer had been because he was much more handsome than her own soulmate. His brunette friend had reported this to him with a weirded-out expression, obviously not understanding his partner’s logic, because while she understood you could find other people attractive, the bonds between two soulmates were undeniable. This just added to his negative view of soulmates — were they really meant to be if she could be so shameless towards others in front of her soulmate?

“Hi Beck!” The same overly-peppy tone he’d been hearing for the past few classes sounded behind him, and he turned to find his former partner standing there. Was her name Ashley? Rachel? He had always forgotten it despite feeling a little bad about it, but the whole thing with her attempting to flirt with him while her soulmate was in the room was a huge no for him. 

He wasn’t in the mood to put up with her antics this time, but he still had to be _nice,_ because it wasn’t pleasant to have someone yell at you after a greeting — even if you were being annoying. Before he could return the hello, though, she’d already started blabbering, rolling her brown eyes and combing her fingers through her dyed platinum blonde strands. 

“Can you believe that Ms Posie made the guys draw new partners? Like, oh my god, that’s so stupid because _I_ think our chemistry was _great._ It’s going to be _so_ weird dancing with another guy now, cause you were, like, _perfect._ By the way, who’d you pick? I can’t _wait_ for us to be partners again!”

A wry smile formed before he could help it, but he quickly masked his annoyance by crinkling his eyes to look kinder. He gave her a nod, trying to keep his voice even so he wouldn’t give away the mocking tone he wanted to take. “Oh, um, I picked Jade.” 

“What? What do you mean, you picked Jade? Why didn’t you pick _my_ name? Ugh, this sucks! You were _my_ partner first. Let’s go and tell Ms Posie _we_ don’t wanna change partners, like, she can’t force _us_ to switch when our chemistry is so good!” 

Before he could stop the crazy blonde, she already started to stomp towards where their instructor stood, ready to give the older lady a tongue-lashing of lacking vocabulary. She didn’t get far before Jade blocked her path, arms crossed and a sweet, sweet smile painted on her face. 

“I thought I’d let you know that Ms Posie strictly said no switching once the paper’s drawn.” She drawled, the smile not leaving her lips even as the shorter blonde stomped her feet in frustration. 

“It’s _not_ fair! I had Beck first, he’s _mine!_ Mine, mine, mine!” Her shrill complaint is paired with more stomps of her boots, clenched fists and flushing cheeks. Jade only lifted an unamused eyebrow, and he saw her shoot him an _are you serious_ look, to which he shrugged helplessly in return.

“Well, too bad but he’s mine now.” The brunette snapped after a few more seconds of hearing the smaller girl whine. Beck had to hid his growing smile because somehow, for some reason, it felt delightful hearing that he was _hers._ Not hers romantically, but hers anyway. He was very quickly distracted by Jade when she unfolded her arms and took a threatening step towards the blonde, ocean eyes flashing dangerously with her hands on her hips. “Now go away, you’re blocking _my_ partner.”

Given their height difference, Jade was much taller and more intimidating up close; her withering glare quickly sent the girl away in defeat. She was certain she heard a huff of frustration, rolling her eyes at the snotty attitude before she took the next few steps to Beck (who seemed far too amused at how quickly she could send the insistent blonde away). 

“Thanks.” He told her immediately once she reached him, chocolate eyes twinkling in mirth and a little _something else,_ something she couldn’t place her finger on. She shook her head, a tiny smile unknowingly forming as she looked into his eyes.

“Tori told me she was a bitch. We could hear her almost _screaming_ about how you were hers.” She explained with a shrug, as if she couldn’t care less, but it’s still something to be grateful for anyway since he really couldn’t keep up his calm facade the more he heard her blab. 

“Yeah, well… I guess it comes with the territory.” With a quiet laugh, he slipped a hand through his hair, ruffling the tresses lightly. He saw her raise a brow, shaking her head at his slightly conceited words. 

“What territory?” Her laughter is uncalled for, but the mellifluous tones stay in his ears a second too long, and he had to bite his lip to ensure he didn’t slip away into a trance. 

Before he could answer her, though, she eyed him with an appreciative look, a teasing smile formed on her lips. “The one that comes with easily being one of the top cutests guys in school?” 

“That, I guess,” he joked, hands slipping into his pockets out of habit, shaking his head at the beautiful smile he saw. “But hey, remind me not to piss you off.” 

At this, she lifted a brow, as if questioning the sudden shift in subject. 

“You’re dangerous.” Beck finished, mirroring her mischievous smile as he looked into her blue eyes again, watching them grow confused before they gave away to soft, amused laughter. 

But his words rang loudly in his head, paired together with her musical chuckles that he seemed to drown in.

_So, so dangerous._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yknow i realised they don’t use their wings much despite being part bird . 
> 
> also i feel like nobody is reading this and it sucks lmao, but hey, i’d love to hear your thoughts! pop them down below and let me know if you loved or hated it. hope y’all enjoy this chapter as well. (❁´▽`❁)*✲ﾟ


	5. Chapter 5

Why had she stepped up and told the ratty blonde a lie? She definitely didn’t hear their instructor saying anything about not switching partners after getting picked, but she had lied through her teeth anyway. Was there a reason she decided it was a good move? It wasn’t like she felt any remorse, though, because something about the girl throwing a tantrum about her and Beck’s supposed  _ chemistry  _ just rubbed her the wrong way. Before she knew it, she had already blocked her from getting to the instructor and spoke before she could rethink her words.

In all honesty, if the blonde had been nice, Jade probably would’ve felt just a little sorry, but all bets had been off the moment she saw how exasperated Beck had seemed whilst the girl went on and on about them having the  _ best  _ chemistry ever — she also saw the relief (that vanished as quickly as it came) in his brown eyes. The fleeting emotion told her she did a good thing, even if she didn’t know just what she did it for. 

Still very much confused by her own actions, she stood there, a little too close to him and just staring aimlessly at a spot on the floor whilst she felt the warmth of his gaze seeping through her bones, making her feel as if he could see right through her.

The spot suddenly seemed much more fascinating then; she traced non-existing patterns on the wooden floor with her eyes repeatedly until the instructor got their attention through two short claps. She looked up, making the mistake of catching her partner’s chocolate eyes and immediately, her gaze flew towards the front instead. 

Luckily, Ms Posie started blabbering about their class today, talking enough to fill the empty spaces between the pair. Jade grimaced slightly at how the instructor seemed to have the uncanny ability to never shut up about something, feeling the same warm gaze on her once more. 

_ Enough was enough,  _ she decided, turning to look her partner in the eyes because he kept  _ staring  _ at her, and it felt like there was something growing on her face. The words she had prepared died on her tongue _ (what do you want, my autograph?)  _ when she took in the beautiful sight of a soft, light smile formed on his lips. She’d seen his boyish grins, ones while joking around with the group and other kinds of smiles, but not  _ this one. _

Before she could think of any reasons why he was smiling like  _ that,  _ though, their instructor had already given out the directions to go to their partners and get into position so she could come around and check that everything was fine. Then, she went off on a tangent about how salsa dancing could be affected by how each other’s partners looked when paired up.

Jade huffed out an impatient breath, because Ms Posie  _ really  _ needed to learn when to stop blabbering about the criteria of salsa and instead start going around to check their postures like she said she would. With a light scowl in place, she looked at Beck, who had his arms raised expectantly towards her with a grin on his face. She really wanted to slap that smile off his handsome face, because it was making her feel  _ things  _ she didn’t ever feel before.

It seemed that he thought she was nervous, because he leaned in to whisper into her ear once she begrudgingly stepped into his outspread arms.

“Hey, don’t worry about it. I’ve been told I’m a decent enough dancer.”

She suppressed the light shiver that threatened to race down her spine, instead rolling her eyes and giving him a light slap on his shoulder. Beck placed one warm hand on her hip, the other reaching for one of hers, and she placed her free hand on his shoulder. Almost immediately, their instructor popped up out of nowhere and hummed loudly in thought while taking in their position. 

“Good, good, beautiful!” She chirped, clapping her hands in approval before she gave Beck a look. “You remember how the salsa steps go, yes?”

“Yes, Ms Posie.” He replied, giving her a light smile before she nodded and stepped away, lowering his gaze to his partner once more. “Y’know, most people get startled by how she suddenly pops out of nowhere.”

“I’m not easy to scare,” she shot back immediately, earning a chuckle from her partner as he shook his head fondly. He stepped back, starting to lead her into the first steps of the dance, and she followed with ease; conversation dying off as he began to twirl her around, her voluptuous body so pliant to his every touch he had to remind himself how to breathe. She never mentioned being a good dancer, but at least he knew now — was the first to know, apparently, as he noticed many of his classmates’ open jaws and widened eyes as he dipped her smoothly. 

“You never said you were a great dancer.” He whispered, slowly pulling her up from the position he had lowered her into, looking into her ocean eyes as a smug expression immediately formed upon hearing his words. He spun her away from him, pulling her back into a tangled embrace, both their hands still joined. 

“I could say the same about you,” she breathed back, and he smelled the sweet fragrance wafting from her hair again for a second before she spun gracefully out of their locked embrace; his fingers barely managing to catch the tips of hers. Jade flashed him a small smile, which he returned before he pulled her towards him, surprised when she allowed him to without a complaint. They stopped once she’s pressed against him, breaths mixing together and brown eyes finding blue ones; he found himself leaning closer and closer towards her rosy lips before—

“Bravo, Mr Oliver, Ms West!” Their instructor applauded, as did almost all of the class as Beck pulled away from Jade jerkily, still holding her in case she fell before he shot Ms Posie a tight smile. Jade straightened herself, letting go of him once she found her balance and gave their instructor a wry smile.

“Thank you, Ms Posie.” She replied at last, running one hand through her luscious tresses whilst tossing a casual glance at Beck, who echoed her words breathlessly. Their instructor launched into another spiel about their wonderful chemistry, leaving the pair to their own devices as the rest of the class’ attention melted away from them to refocus on the brunette teacher’s words.

“So…” Beck began, running a hand through his hair and raising an eyebrow at his partner partly in wonder. “I didn’t know you could dance that well.” 

A soft chuckle escaped her at his expression, the brunette shaking her head. “I didn’t know  _ you  _ could dance that well either. Honestly, I thought that blonde was exaggerating about your chemistry with her.”

His expression melted away into one of slight annoyance at the mention of his previous partner, a grimace pulling at his lips before he shook his head. “Please don’t mention her, I think I can already hear her temper tantrum coming when we started dancing together.”

He didn’t even need to cast a glance towards the other end of the room where the blonde was, stomping and huffing about how  _ she  _ was meant to be the one dancing with Beck, her soulmate standing off to the side with an exhausted look on his face. Jade, on the other hand, didn’t mind staring opening at the pair before she turned back to him again, a mischievous smile laced on her lips.

“Well, since she’s staring at us… wanna go for another round?” 

Her soft laughter echoed in his ears, mingling together with his own as he agreed.

* * *

The exhilaration of dancing his socks off (not quite in the literal sense, though he did almost lose his shoe once throughout their routine) was, needless to say, quite invigorating, and he felt so full of energy that once they had stopped dancing at the end of the lesson, he picked Jade up and spun her around. He obviously got a punch in the shoulder once he put her down afterwards, though, but it had been worth it to hear her breathless gasps of his names and light squeaks that he hadn’t thought  _ Jade West  _ was capable of producing.

He wasn’t sure how their little game didn’t catch anyone’s attention — apart from Tori, of course, he knew she was going to have  _ tons  _ of questions for him later on when she could get him alone from the others — but it seemed that the rest of the class had deemed it their ‘normal’ behavior to play around like that during the lesson, which was something he appreciated. 

“I hate sweating.” Jade grumbled as they left class, which made him look over at her with a raised eyebrow. To this, she gave him a look, as if daring him to comment on it. “What? Is that a crime? I just don’t like feeling gross.”

“Well, dancing  _ is  _ considered an exercise… exercises make you sweat.” He replied with a light chuckle, feeling amusement bubble up at how adorable she was. Something about her complaining about minor issues like producing perspiration when her personality was that of a tough, individualistic girl — it was… for the lack of better words, making him weak at the knees for some unknown reason.

She rolled her eyes at his words, giving him another smack on his shoulder just like the one before they had started dancing, and he had to bite his lip to stop his grin from growing any bigger. 

“The academy has showers if you wanna take one.” He offered, giving the pale brunette a shrug as they made their way over to where their bags sat with their friends standing there as well, all ready to leave the big hall. 

“What’s up?” Tori asked, ever the astute one in their little circle, furrowing her brows at Jade’s unhappy expression. Beck reached for his bag, shouldering it before giving a tilt of his head towards his partner’s direction.

“She said she hates sweating, so she’s being grumpy about it.” He received a light kick to his shin for that, which made him mouth a silent ‘ow’ towards the brunette, who returned it with a sickly-sweet smile.

“There are showers we can use, Cat and I always need one after dance lessons.” Tori gave the other brunette a bright smile, shrugging both shoulders as she grasped the sling of her monster-sized purse tightly. “We can show you the way!” 

“I was just telling her that, but she didn’t seem to like the idea.” He piped up again, glancing towards his partner to make sure she didn’t take another swing at his legs again. 

“Ugh, I’d love to take a shower, but I didn’t bring any spare clothes.” Jade grumbled at last, a slight pout pushing her lower lip out as she picked up her own bag, shouldering it and furrowing her brows whilst crossing her arms. “I didn’t think I’d need it today.”

“That’s it?” He couldn’t resist asking, scrunching his brows in confusion. Couldn’t she just wear the same clothes back? They would’ve dried out by the time they finished their showers, right? Given how long he always waited with Andre and Robbie for the other two girls to finish their ‘quick showers’, he had assumed Jade would take the same amount of time.

“That’s it?  _ That’s it?  _ Beck Oliver, I dare you to say that once more.” Her ocean eyes froze over as she narrowed a fierce glare towards him, making him put up both his hands in surrender. “Who wears the same clothes after  _ sweating  _ in them? What’s the point of a shower then?”

“Okay, okay,” he attempted to pacify her, keeping his lone slow and soft so he didn’t agitate her further with his unthinking words. “Look, I have an extra shirt and pants in my locker, if you’d like. You can… change into them and return them tomorrow or something.” 

Her glare dissipates then, and she stared at him with this weird expression on her face — he’d guess half confusion and perhaps half… bewildered? That he’d offer his own clothes and… oh. Maybe she thought he was trying to do something about their soulmate marks and make a move on her? That wasn’t his intention though, and he was about to say so when she spoke up again, effectively cutting him off because she was Jade West, and something about her just made him clam up. All. The. Damn. Time.

“Alright, I’ll borrow your clothes.” She nodded her head, turning towards the doorway and pausing when she saw the rest of them not moving. “Well? C’mon, Oliver, I’ve got a shower to take.” 

* * *

It was official, for the umpteenth time, that the world was trying to go against him. Throughout the course of the whole day, he had to wonder if he’d done something to upset the gods to make them go from thinking ‘ _ hey, it’s a good idea to make this kid suffer by tossing him and his soulmate together repeatedly in their classes together’  _ to  _ ‘hey, let’s make him suffer even more by making him see her wear his clothes’. _

Jade was already gorgeous whilst dressed in her own clothes, despite layering black on black on _ more  _ black, but something about the way his shirt fit a little loosely around her ever so slightly shorter, smaller frame was… well, it was making him forget how to breathe  _ yet again, _ and he needed to keep breathing to live. His pants were the wrong size for her too, so they hung a little too low on her hips (even with the belt she borrowed from Tori) and she had to fold up the legs a little just so they wouldn’t pool incessantly at her feet and cause her to trip. 

She had seemed a little doubtful about his taste in clothes at first, having given a little half frown, half pout at the white, long-sleeved shirt as if it had done something to offend her. She’d complained a second later that  _ it was too white,  _ though in the end she had put it on since it was the only thing he could offer her, and none of their friends had any spare clothes to lend her.

Even several minutes after having changed, Jade still didn’t seem to be comfortable; the gang having agreed to fly out of the academy grounds so they could show her around Rosewood — specifically the large mall they had, because the brunette had mentioned that Evergreen was just… green. Their journey took about fifteen minutes, given the academy was a little distanced from the large center of the bustling city, yet it wasn’t that far of a flight.

Beck watched as she tugged on the sleeves yet again, despite the fact that they already covered her hands, as if she wasn’t used to having fabric against her wrists, while their friends strolled forward at a slightly quicker pace, making merry conversation amongst themselves. He slipped out of where he had been trailing behind Andre, hanging back to where Jade was trudging along and not looking as peppy as the rest. Granted, she never had a bright personality from the get-go, but she seemed really, really uncomfortable ever since he lent her his shirt, and that made him concerned if she was suddenly feeling unwell.

“You okay?” He whispered to her, poking the pale brunette lightly on her arm.

“I’m fine, I just don’t like feeling something against my wrists. My skin’s sensitive.” She looked up at him, grumbled and tugged on the sleeves harshly once more, as if to prove her point. “It’s not your fault though, so don’t start saying it is.”

He had opened his mouth to apologise once she had mentioned not liking long sleeves, but snapped it close before he could even get the words out. Huh, how’d she know? Seeing his confused expression, Jade rolled her eyes, giving him a light push.

“You apologise for  _ everything,  _ idiot. Remember the pen?” Her voice turned teasing then, making him look up at her in time to catch the ends of a tiny smile curling her lips. He grinned, stuffing his hands into his pockets and shrugging. 

Maybe apologising was a habit. One he developed so that he couldn’t be seen as anything but nice, polite, kind — his mother always told him it was better for him to leave a nice impression on people. Even if it meant he had to hide his emotions loads of times, over and over. That wasn’t to say, though, that his friends didn’t know — they did, they knew of the facade he hid behind and were still there for him; he appreciated that greatly. 

Obviously, Jade doesn’t give him too much time to indulge in his thoughts.

“Why do you even have an extra shirt and jeans in your locker, anyway?” She probed, twirling one of her many curls around one finger and regarding him with a curious expression.

“Oh. When I first started studying here, I kind of… got mobbed by the girls.” He shivered at the memory, grimacing slightly before continuing. “Got my brand new shirt and jeans torn. That was a lesson learned, so I always brought extras in case it happened again. Thank god it didn’t.”

His little story earned him a smile  _ and  _ a laugh, making him grin again now that she seemed to be feeling better. Jade was smiling a little more now — just a tiny bit, though, because her disposition wasn’t naturally as sunny as Cat’s or Tori’s were, but he was starting to notice little signs that showed she was happy.

For example, the infinitesimal curl of the corners of her lips, or the way she looked down or away whenever said tiny smile formed, like she didn’t want anybody noticing she was happy. Or the way her ocean eyes sparkled with mirth at a joke, the playful way they lit up when she was teasing someone she deemed decent enough to be on good terms with — like their little circle, which he felt somewhat thankful for.

“Rosewood to Beck, hello?” A snap of slender fingers followed the words, the pale brunette having stopped walking in order to make sure her companion didn’t walk right into a stranger. Her other hand grasped his elbow lightly, having pulled him away from the incoming crowd that poured in and out of the mall. “What, is there something on my face or something? Why do you keep  _ staring  _ at me?”

Had he been staring? His mind raced for an excuse he could use as to  _ why  _ he’d been staring at her like some creep, except the only reason he’d been staring in the first place was because she looked absolutely breathtaking in his clothes — but he couldn’t say that without expecting a tight slap to his face, right? It sounded too perverse to not get a well-deserved slap to the face.

“I just… thought… maybe you’d feel more comfortable if you got new clothes.” He stammered out at last, cursing himself for sounding unconfident in his words even as he strung them together. 

He received a raised eyebrow in return, almost hearing her silently mocking him with an expression that clearly stated,  _ what, that’s your excuse?  _ He had to distract her before she started asking questions and — oh shit, Tori was looking over with a really suspicious look now.

“What’s up?” Andre broke the silence between them, raising a brow.

“Oh, nothing… Beck just offered to pay for my new outfit.” Jade smirked, flashing him a look that read  _ if you don’t say yes, you’re gonna get bombarded with questions from Tori. _

“Yeah, I felt bad since my clothes don’t fit her right.” He nodded slowly, putting on his best nonchalant mask — acting skills, please come through — and apparently it was believable enough, because even Tori shrugged in acceptance (oh, that’s so Beck; always so nice) and turned back to their conversation.

“You owe me one.” She drawled lazily, a smirk on her lips as she regarded him with mirthful ocean eyes before she moved to join the others. “I can’t wait to pick out a new, expensive outfit.” 

Beck swallowed thickly, fighting the electrifying feeling he felt coursing through his body as he trudged after her, reaching for his pocket where he kept his wallet and feeling the soft, worn leather. He cast a forlorn gaze up skywards, exhaling a deep breath as he checked the contents and made sure all his cards were in place, ready to be abused by the gorgeous brunette a few steps ahead of him.

“I hope I have enough money.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i've been so exhausted working from home lmao, i don't even know why the wifi adapter from my workplace sucks so much, it takes ages to load a damn webpage. 
> 
> on another note, i've also gotten my switch and animal crossing new horizons and... it's... taken over my life. (insert ashamed but not really face here) also i hope everybody is doing well and are making sure to social distance yourselves AND wash your hands!! please stay safe during this period, stay at home!!
> 
> anyway, here's the next chapter, i hope you all enjoy! as usual, let me know what you think through a comment below, they're always nice to read! (:


	6. Chapter 6

He has no idea how this had happened. They had been walking around quite happily with the rest of their friends when Jade had suddenly yanked him into a shop, his questions having died on his tongue the moment he saw her ocean eyes sparkling. Without a word, she had abandoned him by the racks of clothes, grabbed a few outfits — all dark in color — and instructed him to wait outside the changing room.

The sound of clothes rustling from being jostled about is all he heard as he stayed outside awkwardly, pushing a hand through his hair and the other into his pocket. From the corner of his eyes, he noticed the shop assistants staring at him, feeling part conscious and part confused. Did he do something to make the cashiers whisper to each other and while nodding in his direction? Was he being overly-conscious? His hand sweeps over his hair again, his brows scrunching together as he prayed for Jade to emerge quickly from the room so he wouldn’t be the subject of their stares for any longer.

“That your girlfriend, mate?” 

A voice jostled him out of his thoughts, the male looking over towards where the employees were, in fact, still grinning knowingly at him. Girlfriend? Did they seem like a couple?

“No, we’re just friends.” He found himself despite not knowing why — normally he didn’t answer to strangers outside because he mostly kept to himself. 

“Ha! You owe me ten bucks, thanks sucker.” The girl smirked, slapping her fellow employee’s chest with the back of her hand. “Pay up, Cole.” 

Unsure what to think of the situation playing out before him, Beck just stared speechlessly as Cole pulled out his wallet, grumbling as he pressed a crisp ten dollar bill into the female employee’s hand. She pocketed it before noticing his (very) confused expression, and grinned wider, if possible.

“Hey, c’mere.” She beckoned him over.

Beck glanced towards the curtains hiding Jade, noting that she didn’t seem to be coming out very soon, and plodded over towards the counter with a curious expression. Perhaps she would tell him the reason why they’d been staring and making bets about their relationship?

“You sure you’re not dating her?” The girl questioned, leaning heavily on the counter before she straightened up, giving him a grin again. “I’m Callie, by the way. This dude here is my soulmate, so no worries.”

The second sentence is accompanied by a light slap to her co-worker slash boyfriend’s shoulder, and Beck nodded. Cole gave him a salute, nodding towards the changing room and wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

“I’m not dating her,” Beck exhaled, trying to grip on the reality that two strangers seemed to  _ really  _ believe that they were together… even though they weren’t, and then added, for more emphasis. “We’re not together.”

“Well that’s a bummer.” Callie sighed, studying her nails with a frown before glancing towards the curtains again and back at him. Her voice dropped to a whisper. “You seem to like her, though.”

He froze for a moment, eyebrows knitted together. 

“I don’t like her,” he started, shutting his mouth immediately after when the curtain rustled. “Not romantically, at least.”

“Aw, man. I tell ya,” Cole spoke, shaking his head. “You  _ do  _ like her. I don’t know why you’re denying it, maybe you don’t know, maybe she doesn’t know… But you do.”

Callie nodded in agreement, and Beck suddenly wished he was anywhere but here, where two strangers were trying to second-guess his own emotions. He paused, wet his lips, and again: “I  _ do not  _ like her.”

The pair just eyed him with looks that loudly said,  _ yeah right,  _ and he pursed his lips. Thankfully, the curtain swished open then, distracting all of them and effectively cutting off the hushes conversation they were having. Jade looked around — it didn’t seem like she had heard anything — before striding over to where he was, dressed neatly in a black top with a very low (distracting) neckline and equally black skirt, completed with black tights. In her hands, she held the other outfits she had picked out, along with his shirt and pants.

She placed the other outfits neatly onto the counter where it was sectioned off for ‘returned items’ before turning to the trio. “I’ll take just these.”

Beck watched as Callie recited her usual spiel for customers, before she assisted Jade in cutting off the tags and ringing her up. The brunette pulled out her wallet from her bag, which confused him greatly — because wasn’t he supposed to be buying the outfit for her? — and before he knew it, he had grasped her hand quickly to stop her. 

Her blue eyes stared at him in confusion, eyebrows scrunched together. Wordlessly, he pulled out his wallet and handed his card over; Callie was quick to swipe it before Jade uttered a word and handed his card back to him. 

She pursed her lips in thought (hadn’t really  _ thought  _ he would actually buy the outfit for her because she had been _joking_ and the price wasn’t high but nevertheless, she felt  _ kind of  _ bad) and watched him whilst he tucked his card back into his wallet. 

“All done?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.

Jade thought this over before she turned to the employee and lifted up the shirt and pants, gesturing to them. “Can I have a bag for these?” 

Immediately, she’s presented with a paper bag, and she tucked his clothes away into it. “I’ll wash the shirt and pants before I return them to you. Thanks… for the clothes.”

There were a million things he could say.  _ No problem. You said I was paying for your outfit. Tori’s gonna have questions if I didn’t pay. It’s okay, you look gorgeous. As long as you’re happy. Because you’re worth it.  _

He settled for, “It’s fine.” (and promptly kicked himself in the behind mentally for being so stupid)

With the tiny smile he had grown so familiar with in the past few hours, she turned and headed towards the door, tugging it open. She raised an eyebrow as she’s halfway through it, as if to ask,  _ you coming?  _ Before she vanished through the glass and stood on the other side, presumably waiting for him.

Without much thought, he started to head out with a quick nod to the pair behind the counter.

“Hey man.” Cole interrupted, expression more serious than he’s ever seen on the employee since they stepped into the store

He doesn’t mean to, but he turned around anyway, regarding the male with suspicious eyes.

“If it’s any consolation… I think maybe she likes you too.”

* * *

Lips pursed and blue eyes narrowed slightly, Jade watched silently as her companion took longer than a minute to actually  _ leave  _ the shop. Impatience shot through her, one foot tapping the floor habitually as she fidgeted around, heaving a loud sigh before the door finally opened.

However, as much as she wanted to be nasty to him for taking so long, he  _ had  _ just bought her a brand new outfit — that in itself caused a strange fluttery feeling in her chest. Still, she felt that it wasn’t fair if she yelled at him when he had bought the very clothes she was currently wearing.

“Sorry, the guy just wanted to talk a little while more. He’s a friendly one.” Beck smiled, head slightly tilted to the side.

She noticed how his smile seemed like an act, not the genuine one he showed when he was happy — like he was brooding over something in his head and he didn’t want anyone to find out. She wanted to ask, but it would probably mean sticking her nose into a private matter. While she was straightforward, she knew better than to demand he tell her what was wrong, if only because she knew respecting privacy was a mutual thing. Be nosey, and people would be the same to you.

“Let’s go find the others now.” She said instead, giving a one-shouldered shrug, trying to brush away the curiosity building up about what he was mulling over. “Do you know where they might be?”

“Oh. Right, sure.” He muttered, pulling his phone out to check it for any texts from any of their friends. Knowing Tori and Cat, the gang would probably either be by one of those casual clothing shops or a frozen yogurt place. 

“Tori said they’re at the yogurt place.” Beck informed her, pocketing his phone again before he glanced towards his companion, who gave him a  _ well, show me the way  _ look. 

The silence that fell between them as they walked through the mall was sort of awkward, him being too busy thinking about what Cole had said, and her not wanting to stick her nose into his business. She probably should say something, though, so it didn’t feel as awkward as it did now.

“By the way, you look gorgeous.”

His smooth voice made her look up at him, startled ocean eyes wide open. Jade opened her mouth to say something, but he gestures his index finger to his lips (and looked  _ really  _ handsome while doing so).

“I thought you looked beautiful in my clothes,” he continued, glancing away (out of nervousness? was that possible?) before he gave her a tiny smile. “But something about you and black just completes the whole look.”

The hybrid paused. “But you looked good in white too.”

She stared at him like he’d grown another head, and he had to second-guess if his words were too cheesy, given they weren’t dating. Finally, she rolled her eyes and gave his shoulder a hard shove.

“Don’t get sappy, Oliver.” Her tone was vicious, yet he could still detect the slight hint of amusement in it, which made him smile.

“I think you secretly like it, West.” He nudged her side lightly with his elbow, a grin overtaking his features before it transformed into an o-shape when she  _ nudged  _ him right back, albeit with more force than he did. “Oof.”

Jade stopped then, making him falter as well, and he turned to her with a questioning look. Her eyes twinkled with delight as she gazed at the shop up ahead, his eyes following her line of sight until they found a coffee shop. He raised his eyebrows at her, but he sort of knew what was coming next.

“We’re getting coffee.” She declared, the look on her face daring him to oppose her decision.

“You know, you said you wanted to find the others,” he started, though his amusement was already leaking through in the form of a wide, barely-suppressed grin and raised eyebrows.

“We can find them after getting coffee.” Jade stared at him before she turned and strode towards the shop without a glance back to see if he was following. 

Beck barely suppressed his quiet laughter as he followed after her.

He received another smack on his shoulder for his insolence.

* * *

“Okay, guys, we need a plan. A concrete one.” Tori announced as she dug her spoon into her cup of frozen yogurt laden with sprinkles.

Andre spooned a mouthful of his own yogurt into his mouth before raising his eyebrows at his soulmate. “What plan are we talking about?”

“Ooh, is it the one where we plan a surprise welcome party for Jade?” Cat interrupted giddily before Tori could launch into her explanation, a large smile on her face. “I think we should definitely throw a surprise party for her!”

“That’s a good idea, Cat,” Robbie nodded, shrugging his shoulders as he ate his own frozen delight. “I don’t think she’d like it, but it’s a nice idea.” 

“No, that’s not what I was talking about!” Tori heaved a sigh, sticking her spoon into her yogurt with a frown before she saw Cat pouting lightly, attempting to placate the redhead. “But we can throw a party soon for Jade. What I wanted to discuss is how we’re going to get Beck and Jade to see being soulmates isn’t the worst thing in the whole world.”

“They’re soulmates?” Andre questioned with wide eyes, dropping his spoon onto the floor. “Aw, nuts, I’m gonna get a new spoon.” 

The hybrid headed to the counter with a frown, while Robbie turned to Tori and adjusted his glasses.

“They’re  _ soulmates? _ ” He echoed his friend’s earlier sentiment, raising an eyebrow at her. “How do you know this?” 

His own soulmate giggled, shaking her head and making her long, red locks bounce about. “Silly Robbie, their marks were on their wrists! I saw Jade’s while we had Improv class and it looked exactly like Beck’s wings.” 

“Oh my god, you saw it too?!” The brunette squealed, slamming her half-finished yogurt down on the table in excitement, relieved that someone else had noticed too and she wasn’t the only one going crazy about ideas to bring the pair together.

Cat tittered brightly when Tori grasped her smaller hands in her enthusiasm, bouncing in her seat following her friend’s excitement. “I did! They look so good together. Did you realise that not even five minutes into our shopping trip, they were gone?”

Tori squealed again, making Robbie clap his hands over his ears as Andre made his return to the group — only to drop his spoon again because of his girlfriend’s high-frequency screech. 

“Aw, nuts!” 

“Sorry, babe!” She called out to him as he turned around to head back to the counter again, grumbling. “But oh my god, let’s discuss how we’ll get them together. Actually, maybe that’s too big a step. We should get them to see how soulmates aren’t such a bad thing.”

With a wordless grumble, she leaned back, still holding onto Cat’s hands and squeezing them lightly; a pout forming on her lips as her boyfriend returned (safely) with a spoon, sitting down and continuing to eat his yogurt.  _ (aw, nuts, it’s all melty now!)  _

She watched as he attempted shoveling the melted treat into his mouth, only for it to dribble onto the table — he went for a few more tries before he gave up and just drank the puddle of yogurt out of the cup.

“Anyway,” Tori started, dragging out the first syllable of the word to get her friends’ attention once more. “Let’s think of a way to show Beck and Jade that soulmates aren’t a bad thing! Any ideas?”

“We could just hang out with them more often, let them see how we complete each other as couples.” Robbie shrugged, setting his yogurt down now that he was done with it. “I think by seeing us being sweet with each other, they might get the impression that soulmates aren’t a bad thing after all.”

The brunette hummed at this, contemplating it while Cat finished her yogurt, setting it aside and then shaking her head at her boyfriend.

“I don’t think Jade would be easily swayed just because we’re all sweet with each other.” She added, wiping her mouth with a napkin before sitting back and looking at Tori. “Neither would Beck, ‘cause we’ve all been friends for so long, he would’ve changed his mind already. But he hasn’t.”

“Cat makes a valid point.” Andre spoke, nodding seriously before he set an elbow on the table and rested his chin in his palm. “Are you guys sure we should even  _ do  _ anything?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” The redhead cried out, eyes widened in indignation, like the notion that the pair should be left alone without help was a bad idea. (It probably was, because said pair detested the idea of soulmates)

“We can’t just leave the two of them be, they won’t get  _ together  _ at this rate. They belong together!” Tori exclaimed, completely scandalised that her own boyfriend would suggest  _ not  _ setting up their friends (who belonged together, as decided by fate). “Don’t you want them to be happy?”

“It’s not that, I just—” Andre began, spluttering his excuses whilst his girlfriend pouted into her almost-finished cup of yogurt. She didn’t want it anymore anyway, it had already melted and tasted weird as sugary water.

“What’s this, a couple’s spat? Interesting.” A new voice interrupted, all velvety and smug. 

The group turned, a chorus of ‘oh my god’ from the girls and yelps from the boys echoing. 

“Jade!” Tori squawked, being the most startled out of the whole group. With one hand on her chest, she mustered her best glare against the pale hybrid, who smirked proudly in response.

“Where did the two of you go?” Cat piped up after she recovered from her initial shock, peering at the pair with curious brown eyes. “You disappeared after five minutes! Like poof!”

Jade shrugged non-committedly, not answering the question as she placed her takeaway coffee cup on the table before sitting down at the table next to theirs that was empty. Amused, Beck took the seat opposite of her, turning the chair around so he was straddling it instead of sitting down properly. 

“Oh my god!” The petite redhead squealed then, placing both her hands on her cheeks just as Tori piped up, both noticing her new outfit.

“Wait, your clothes changed.”

“You look soooo pretty with those clothes!” 

The brunette silently tossed some of her long hair behind one shoulder, looking at the pair as if they’d grown two heads each. 

“Thanks.” She uttered at last, giving them a nod before she picked up her coffee and took a long sip, effectively cutting off any other attempts at prolonging the conversation by keeping the cup in her hands and drinking out of it any time Tori or Cat opened their mouths.

Not people to be deterred by such a minor inconvenience, the pair only turn their attention to him instead.

“Sooo, where did you two go just now?” Tori parroted the question her friend had asked earlier, raising her eyebrows at Beck. They weren’t going to get any answers from Jade anytime soon, he was definitely the easier target.

“Just some shop so Jade could pick out her new outfit.” He answered as casually as he could, pressing down the lid of images his brain immediately conjured up about the conversation he had with the cashiers there. 

“Did you pick it out for her?” The brunette pressed, eyes sparkling and open wide in interest. 

He paused, scrunching his eyebrows together. “No… she chose it herself. I’d say she has good taste, though.” 

“Oh, really?” Tori chirped merrily, raising her eyebrows at him suggestively. “So you think she looks gorgeous.”

“I’ve… told her she looked pretty just now when she got changed.” He wished Tori wouldn’t try to press on about this matter, knowing she would try to spin this into a suggestion about how they could try to go out on a date. “You know, let’s just go for food or something. I’m a little peckish.”

Before any of them could say anything, Jade piped up, an incredulous look on her face. 

“Peckish? Who even says that?”

He made a face at her words while their friends chuckled at her tone colored in disbelief.

“I do,” he said after a moment, raising his eyebrows to challenge her to make another comment. “But look, I have a great idea - let’s go get pizza.”

“Pizza sounds great!” Andre agreed, Robbie nodding eagerly next to him.

“I’m a little full, but I guess I can go for some garlic bread.” Tori sighed. 

“Oh my gosh, I want cheese sticks!” Cat piped up, excitedly hopping off her seat in anticipation and then making a grab for Jade’s hands. “C’mon, let’s go!”

“Ugh, you’re all giving me a rash,” The pale brunette snarled in return (though Beck sensed there wasn’t even any venom in her words) and stood up with her hands in Cat’s; downed the rest of her coffee and tossed it into the bin whilst being tugged towards the exit by the petite redhead. 

At the entrance, she suddenly paused, making Cat come to a stop as well. 

“Move it, losers!”

Beck thought he was the only one to catch her teasing undertone of her words, but then he quickly caught the smiles on his friends’ faces. Even Robbie, who had seemed so afraid of how  _ intimidating  _ Jade seemed (or how she portrayed herself).They started moving, with Tori giving him a sideways glance that he refused to acknowledge so she wouldn’t come hounding him about his supposed  _ feelings  _ to his and Jade’s  _ bond. _

So maybe the world was conspiracing against his belief on soulmates, but his soulmate was beginning to seem to be decent. 

“Come on, Oliver, chop chop!” 

Well… half decent, anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I took so long to update! I’ve been spending all my free time playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons lmao. :’) 
> 
> Anyway I hope y’all are safe and healthy; please enjoy this chapter as well! I posted this on mobile so I’ll have to check for typos and grammar when I’m free lol. Things will start moving forward now (at long last) so leave your thoughts in the comments! ( •̤ᴗ•̤ )


	7. Chapter 7

“Why are you stalking me, Oliver?” 

The gorgeous, velvety voice belonging to a certain pale brunette made Beck look up from where he had been admiring the way her long hair had been swishing back and forth mesmerizingly (he was totally not being a creep, at all.) A grin made its way on his face at Jade’s narrowed eyes and pursed lips, both aimed at him menacingly. He put up both his hands in surrender, but couldn’t stop his smile from getting wider at how she was supposed to be threatening, yet all he could see was an angry kitten instead of a ferocious tiger. Probably the wrong analogy, given their species, but to heck with that.

“I’m not stalking you, West,” he retorted, and her loud scoff in return made him chortle. 

“Yeah, right.” She mumbled under her breath, still glaring at him. From the second she had noticed him _stalking_ her from where the group had dispersed in front of the restaurant they had eaten in, she had stopped walking because he was following her (she _definitely_ wasn’t lost, no, not at all). “What do you want?”

He shrugged nonchalantly. “Just wanted to go home. Mine is this way too.”

“Yeah?” She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes a little more suspiciously. “Where do you live?”

“Just north-west of the academy, about twenty minutes away.” He answered quickly — maybe a little too quickly, given her raised eyebrows in return to his eagerness to share about himself. “What about you?”

“Yeah… Not happening, you’re not getting my address.” Jade quipped, shaking her head before she decided to put her stubbornness aside for the time-being. Not enough though, because her next words came out almost too fast for him to catch it. “But if you could show me the way to Amberwood Avenue that’d be cool.”

Surprised that she would even _ask_ him for help getting home instead of being prideful (and stubborn) and going to get herself lost, Beck grinned ecstatically. 

“So, Amberwood Avenue, huh?” He began, whistling lowly before he started to walk forward — just so she didn’t land another smack on his shoulder again. “Are your parents rich or something? That’s the high-class neighborhood.” 

Jade grimaced — she hadn’t wanted anyone to find out her parents made good money, mostly because they started treating her _better_ (that meant being fake on all levels, because they would turn around and stab her in the back). 

“Yeah, so what?” She hissed, glaring angrily at her companion. Her ivory wings bristled in her irritation; his hands shot up in a surrendering motion immediately, surprise evident on his features at her snappiness. 

“Whoa, I didn’t mean anything by that,” he shook his head and gestured for her to calm down, because he hadn’t wanted to make her mad. He wasn’t sure why she got mad either, but he probably hit a sore spot or something along those lines. “Just my observation about the neighborhood. Sorry.” 

Beck gave his best puppy-eyed look and pushed his bottom lip out into a tiny pout. It was the best impersonation of a wounded puppy and it worked all the time — hopefully this time, too, and he wouldn’t get mauled by the (very beautiful) brunette. “Forgive me?”

He was rewarded with an eye-roll, but it seemed that she had calmed down (which was a win that he didn’t get smacked in the face), and he gave her a shy grin.

“I do know the way to Amberwood Avenue, though,” he continued, giving a one-shouldered shrug before he smiled at her. “I’ll show you.”

“Yeah, who said you had a choice?” Jade raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms for a second before unfolding them and gestured for him to lead the way. “Well, lead the way, Oliver.”

“Yes ma’am.” He saluted her jokingly since he heard the _slight_ teasing leaking through her voice. They started to walk towards where he remembered the paths split towards the town’s various flight landmarks. 

Obviously he doesn’t mean to, but the streetlamps had come on while they had been eating their pizza — given the sun had set and it was now evening — and the light from the streetlamps illuminated Jade’s face, making her look ethereal by highlighting her porcelain skin and long lashes. _Okay, stop staring, she’s going to get creeped out._

“I swear, if you stare at me any longer your eyeballs will be rolling on the floor.” 

The threat made him chuckle; he shifted his gaze to look her in the eyes in amusement. Of course Jade wouldn’t be creeped out by some staring. 

“Please don’t pluck out my eyes, I’d really like to keep my vision.” He clasped his hands together in a begging motion. “I just thought you looked really beautiful with all the lights shining on you.”

A light snort was exhaled, and she rolled her eyes. “What is this, some kind of romantic tv show?”

“Hey, I was just telling the truth. Jeez, I’m never complimenting you again.” Beck pretended to sulk, crossing his arms over his chest.

It didn’t take Jade even a second to saunter closer to him, and he received a slap on his shoulder yet again.

“Okay, you’ve _got_ to stop doing that,” he complained, though he was half-teasing because it seemed to be more of a habit than anything malicious. “I’m going to end up with a bruise.”

“Ugh, boo-hoo, what if all the hot girls don’t think you’re all that with a bruise.” She sneered before she shook her head, glancing up at the darkened skies. “Are we there yet? It’s getting dark, and I hate flying in the dark.”

“Oh. Um, almost.” Beck picked up the pace just slightly, heading down the sidewalk until the path came to an end. The directional sign planted to the edge had large writing that read _Amberwood Avenue_ with an arrow marked outwards to where the path ended, making a little diving platform (or, as he liked to call it, flight station) for those headed to the marked destination below. “Here, this is the flight station. Amberwood Avenue is right below.”

“Great, thanks.” She paused after a few steps onto the platform, turning to look at him. Suddenly, he felt nervous with her staring right into his eyes, and he ran a hand through his hair to distract himself from getting too panicked. “Guess I’ll see you at the academy.”

“... Yeah, uh, see you.” He stuttered, rubbing the back of his neck at his slip-up. 

A knowing smirk curved her lips upwards before she spread her wings, the moonlight glittering on the ivory feathers (that he may or may not have silently marveled at) as she gracefully hopped off the ledge. He didn’t have to look to hear her flying away and landing safely. 

Beck exhaled a breath he didn’t even know he had been holding, shaking his head to get his sanity back. With a quiet stretch of his own wings, he took to the skies quickly, glancing downwards to where Jade had flown off earlier. He didn’t see her, but he knew she was safe, at least. 

Maybe the soulmate bond thing wasn’t so bad after all.

* * *

Here was a thought he never knew he would ever have: the weekends sucked. His mum had demanded he wake up on time and have breakfast (because apparently he was still growing according to her and it was ‘the most important meal of the day’). 

It was like he never knew life to be so mundane right after meeting Jade — was this why people went crazy for their soulmates? Did it feel as empty for her as it did for him? He pushed his hair out of his face with a loud sigh, spooning the last bite of his cereal before taking his bowl to the sink.

His phone chimed loudly with the incoming notification of a text message, which made him scrub the bowl and spoon quicker before he set them in the drying rack. Beck wiped his hands on the hand towel nearby, picking up the device to read his new messages. Most of them were from the group chat Tori had created to facilitate their outings together, half of them were from Cat excitedly telling them about her morning (something he had learned not to question), a few from Robbie answering his girlfriend happily, about two from Andre asking if he should bring his guitar to jam, and the most recent one came from Tori — an invite over to her house for lunch and to work on the script Sikowitz had assigned… and the notification that she had added a new number to the chat.

There was no reply from the new addition yet, but it was pretty obvious who it was. He contemplated adding her number, but argued with himself that adding her number without her knowledge was creepy. Would it be considered creepy? After all, Tori _had_ added her to the group chat… His phone chimed again with another new message, and he checked the chat again, to see one reply from Jade that read _‘you all give me a rash.’_ Immediately, his phone chimed again — the new one read _‘I’ll be over later.’_ and he had to bite his lip to stop the large grin from forming on his face. 

He sent his own reply confirming he was going as well, as did the others in quick succession, before Tori replied that she had ordered pizza and they were meeting at 12pm. Somehow feeling elated for some reason, he’s so distracted by his sudden eagerness to fly to Tori’s house _right at this moment_ that he almost didn’t hear his phone chime another time. He lifted the device to his face, unlocking it before seeing a message sent individually to him instead of the group. From Jade. Huh. Why was his heart suddenly beating so fast?

 **[ From: Unknown Number ]** **  
****I don’t know how to get to Tori’s house. Show me the way.**

Typical Jade. He didn’t know why, but he could picture her scowling at her phone while waiting for his reply — which was probably taking way too long by her standards. He composed a text back immediately after saving her number; it wasn’t a good idea to keep her waiting. 

**[ To: Jade ]  
** **I’ll meet you at the flight station above Amberwood Avenue in twenty minutes.**

Before he could even set his phone down to take a quick shower, it chimed again.

 **[ From: Jade ]  
** **You better be there in twenty minutes or I’ll cut off all your hair. Even if you’re one minute late.**

Somehow, he knew she would make good on her threat — while hair could technically grow back, he didn’t want her cutting his luscious locks that took him tons of effort — nevertheless, he was quite amused by how her personality still shone through text. 

**[ To: Jade ]  
** **Got it. Twenty minutes. No more, no less.**

The male set his phone aside and hurried to his bathroom quickly, grabbing the nicest clothes he could find before he headed to shower. He definitely didn’t want to have his hair cut off. Nope. Not even by his gorgeous (and totally evil) soulmate. _Nope. Not happening._

* * *

How casual was too casual? Granted, she hadn’t put a lot of thought into her outfit because there wasn’t anyone to impress (besides the guy who was her soulmate, but she didn’t really want to impress him) and she’d just thrown on the closest outfit she could find, which consisted of black bustier top and the first pair of jeans folded inside of her drawer. She had, of course, curled her hair into loose waves and applied makeup, because that was just part of her routine — again, not trying to impress anyone — and pulled on her favorite pair of combat boots before she flew up to the flight station. There weren’t many people, which made it quiet just the way she liked it. 

Jade checked her phone for the time to make sure she wasn’t late, and she wasn’t. He had sent her the last message about ten minutes ago, which meant he still had ten minutes to get to their meeting place before she cut off all his hair. She had her scissors all prepared in her boot and all that, too, but she really wished she brought some gum because waiting was boring. It was also colder than she’d predicted it’d be, and she was starting to regret wearing this specific top because it didn’t help keep any warmth.

She ran a hand through her locks, pursing her lips as she grew more impatient with each passing minute (where the _hell_ was Oliver?!) when a low whistle caught her attention. The brunette glared harshly at the source of the sound, not even bothering to tilt her head up, her earlier irritation flaring up more at the sight of two boys standing a distance away. They weren’t even trying to hide where they were staring — right at the curved neckline of her top. 

Obviously, she has some very choice words for them, but she knew starting the conversation would turn the tables on her quickly, because boys like these took even the tiniest bit of attention (however negative) as interest. She stared at her nails instead, studying the chipping paint as if it was the most captivating thing in the world, and she was succeeding at it — until they came closer, standing right in front of her. Too close, in her opinion.

“Heyyyy,” one of them greeted, sounding like a bleating goat that had a sore throat. “I’ve never seen you around before, you’re hot. What’s your name?”

“Yeah hottie, give us your number. Wanna have some fun with us?” The other smirked, shoving his hands into his already-too-low pants. “We can show you a good time.”

 _Deep breaths,_ she reminded herself. _Don’t look at them. They’re not worth it._ Jade was really thankful she could school her expression into one of nonchalance, staring off into the air as they hovered in front of her like annoying flies.

“C’mon, beautiful.” The first one said again, grinning at his buddy like it was some kind of sick game. “I’m sure you don’t wanna be out here by your lonesome. We can keep you company, my friend and me.” 

_It’s my friend and I,_ she corrected angrily in her head, but the brunette just ignored them as she stared blankly at whatever that wasn’t their faces. Just kept wishing she could punch them both in their faces or glare them into oblivion, but she couldn’t because she knew how to pick her fights — against two other hybrids, she wouldn’t be able to win. 

“Aw, I guess she’s shy. Maybe we should introduce ourselves first. He’s Adam and I’m Joe. But you can call us anytime you want.” Joe waggled his eyebrows whilst Adam leered at her chest even more. “So, how about we go have fun, sexy? Maybe you can take off that top for us, give us a lil show.”

Oh, how she wanted to punch them right now. Like, right in their faces. Maybe a swift knee to their nether regions would do them some good. But her gut stopped her. Perhaps it was because she knew that if she did hit one, the other could grab and restrain her. 

“Hey, we’re talking to you!” Adam (or Joe?) snarled, grabbing a hold of her wrist. She jerked, immediately giving him a scathing glare and gritted her teeth. Hell to not wanting to resort to violence, because she _detested_ being touched.

“Let go of me.” She snapped, anger flaring up as she pulled against his hold. “Or else.”

“Ha! Or else what, you’ll poke my eyes out?” Joe (or Adam?) smirked, tightening his hold on her wrist as his companion stepped closer so she was trapped between the two of them and had no space to swing her arms. The other grabbed her free arm, and god damn it, she should’ve punched them when she had the chance.

“Feisty and gorgeous. What luck we have, meeting such a babe. We’re going to have fun.” Adam cackled, putting his other hand on her hip. “Look at this. She’s curvy.”

So she didn’t have her arms to punch them. Big deal. Jade lifted her foot, decided to get the guy in front of her first, and slammed it hard against his shin. Immediately, one of the hands on her wrist was gone as he reflexively clutched his leg, but she had no time to lose — she whirled around, elbow aimed for the guy behind her, and got him right in his side. Not hard enough for him to let go fully, but his grip loosened, and she took the chance to pull away from the duo.

“Get back here!” The second guy recovered quickly from the blow of her (weakly aimed) elbow, lunging forward to grab her again. 

_Shit._ She knew she definitely couldn’t react in time because he moved while she was trying to get away, and she wasn’t going to make her retaliation in time.

“Leave her alone.”

Out of the blue, another hand grabbed the guy’s instead, stopping him from grabbing her, and Jade had never thought she’d feel _relieved_ seeing Beck Oliver’s face. (She also was a little surprised, because given how not _muscular_ he was, she hadn’t expected him to be strong enough to fend off the stranger, who was, quite frankly, bigger than he was in size. Sideways, that was.)

“What the hell, man?” Angered, Joe (Adam?) shook off Beck’s hand and glared at him. “You some knight in shining armor or something?” 

“Yeah, bug off, you’re not her boyfriend.” The other guy growled as he stomped over to join them. “We found her first.” 

“Did she say she wanted to hang out with you?” Beck asked, allowing the guy to take his hand back before he moved to stand in front of Jade, who kind of appreciated that he was trying to protect her. She didn’t expect him to turn to her. “Did you want to hang out with them?”

What the hell was he even asking? She gave him a look that conveyed exactly that, then shook her head for good measure. 

“She said no, so bug off.” He snarled, extending his wings wider (to block her from their view? To seem more intimidating?) and fixing them with his best scathing glare. Clearly, he was more of a challenge than just Jade by herself, and the scene was beginning to garner attention from onlookers who had seemingly gathered out of nowhere.

“Ugh, whatever. Bet she’s a bad lay anyway.” 

He waited until the pair was gone, and most of the onlookers vanished as well before he lowered his wings. Somehow, she felt weird about the situation — it was the first time she’d seen him so _angry_ and he had said anger was something he didn’t really _feel_ and this just made her head whirl. 

“You okay?” He turned to her then, making her look up at him before he gave her a slight smile. “Sorry, I know you could’ve dealt with them yourself, but…” 

“No, you saved me,” she admitted, shaking her head before realising _oh, she was just a tiny bit overwhelmed by how aggressive they had been._ “I could’ve managed one, but not both of them. Sucks to be a girl sometimes.”

“Hey, you would’ve beat them if they didn’t have the advantage in numbers. For sure.” His reassuring smile was starting to make her feel better now, and she offered a tiny one back. “You sure you’re okay?”

Jade sucked in a deep breath before she nodded. “Yeah. It was… kind of overwhelming, but yeah. I’m okay.” 

Silence fell over them like a thick blanket whilst Beck studied her face, noting that she had locked her arms over her chest, and despite her indifferent expression, her eyes still showed a tiny hint of how the whole situation had affected her. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt the need to protect her — did it have to do with being her soulmate? — so he pulled off the flannel he’d been wearing over his shirt and draped it over her shoulders before he curled a tentative hand around her elbow in case she pulled away. She didn’t, instead looking at him quizzically, and he gave her a grin.

“Let’s go get coffee.”

She had never heard better words.

* * *

By the time they both walked through Tori’s door, the rest of the group were already there. They wouldn’t have been so late, if not for Beck’s insistence that they got drinks for all of them, so Jade had given in despite grumbling. Then they had to go to a convenience store, because he was _so sure_ that they wouldn’t enjoy coffee with their pizza, unlike her.

“You’re late!” Tori threw her hands up in the air, though she didn’t sound all that angry. Then her expression turned scandalous when she realised it was the _two_ of them. “Wait… Why are you both coming in together?” 

“Jade didn’t know the way here, you forgot to text her your address.” Beck answered smoothly before he held up the bag of bottled sodas he had bought. “But we have drinks.” 

“Ooh, yay, drinks!” Cat cheered, happily flitting over to the pair for hers. “The pizza guy was late too, so no worries about cold pizza! Come and eat!” 

“I got cola and sprite.” He piped up, moving over to set the drinks on the table, to which the rest of the group cheered their agreement to his choices. Jade rolled her eyes as she finally pried the lid off her takeaway coffee and took a sip. 

“Wait, why does Jade have coffee?” Tori asked, furrowing her brows as she took a seat next to Andre, who was busy opening the pizza boxes. “And I’m sure I texted my address to Jade.” 

Beck furrowed his brows in confusion and turned to the brunette in question. She hadn’t mentioned that earlier.

“I deleted it.” Jade sat down in the empty space next to Cat, setting her coffee aside in favour of getting a plate. She ignored the scandalised gasp that came from Tori.

He unknowingly took a seat beside her, shaking his head at her antics. “Pass me a plate.” 

“Magic word?” She replied without batting a single eyelash, turning to regard him with her ocean eyes. 

“Pass me a plate, oh beautiful and gorgeous Jade.” He deadpanned, to which she pursed her lips in consideration before she plucked a plate from the pile and handed it to him, narrowly missing his head. He was pretty sure that was on purpose.

“Actually the magic word was lotion,” she quipped, setting the plate down in front of him as if she hadn’t almost tried to nail him in the forehead with it. “But I’ll let it slide because you called me beautiful.” 

Cat giggled at their exchange, toying with the ends of her red hair. “What pizza do you guys want? I’ll serve!” 

“Wait,” Andre paused as he was separating the pizza slices cleanly with a pair of scissors. He squinted, leaned forward, then backwards and eyed the pair. “Why is Jade wearing your flannel, Beck?”

Oh. Huh. He had actually forgotten he’d wrapped it around her shoulders earlier, and hadn’t noticed it was _his_ until Andre pointed it out. Perhaps the way it hung loosely around her frame made it look like hers, or it just really, really suited her, and he had forgotten about it actually being his in the first place.

“I was cold, so Oliver offered his flannel.” Jade rolled her eyes after a moment of waiting for Beck to answer the question, before it became clear that he was too deep in his thoughts to give a reply. “Are we done with twenty questions now? Cat, give me a slice of pepperoni pizza.” 

“Okayyy!” The redhead chirped, gesturing for Andre to finish cutting the pizza so she could get one for her friend. He gave the reply a short contemplation, shrugged then cut out a slice for Cat to put onto Jade’s plate. “Here you go!” 

“Thanks.” The brunette replied before she started eating.

“I’ll have a pepperoni too, Cat.” Beck said, holding out his plate carefully and waited as Cat planted the slice on his plate with a sunny smile. “Thanks, Cat.” 

“I’m opening the sodas!” Robbie called out from the counter, picking out cups from the drying rack to use. “Who wants some?” 

All of them chorused for a cup except for Jade, who silently sipped at her coffee. It was noisier than she was used to on a weekend, but… it was decent, being with friends. She watched as Robbie made his way over with the tray of filled cups, opening her mouth to tell him his shoelace was untied when the lanky boy tripped over said shoelace and planted to the ground. Thankfully (and surprisingly), Andre caught the tray before it fell, though the cups were jostled around and some of the contents were spilled.

“Robbie! Are you okay?” Cat yelled, horrified that her boyfriend had just possibly wrecked his nose on Tori’s carpet. 

“I’ll get the first-aid kit.” Tori stood up, walking away from the crumpled mess of Robbie on her floor. 

Jade silently stood up, Beck furrowing his brows at her as she headed to the kitchen and grabbed the nearest clean cloth she could find and wet it. Beck slid over to help Robbie sit up, grimacing at the blood trickling out of his nose.

“That looks bad.” He commented, taking the tissues that Andre passed him some tissues, which he held to Robbie’s nose. “Here Rob, lean forward and pinch the center of your nose.”

The hybrid did as instructed, groaning from the slight pain he still felt from kissing the carpet so violently. Jade came back with the cloth, lifting the cups and wiping the bottoms before setting them down and removing the tray. She moved back to the kitchen with it and rinsed it off before setting it aside.

“Okay, I have the first aid kit!” Tori scurried back in, rummaging through the box to find something, _anything_ to help. “Are you okay, Robbie? Do you need a… uh… bandage?” 

“How are you going to bandage a bleeding nose?” Jade retorted as she came back from washing the tray, hands on her hips. Her words, however, had less bite to them than before, because clearly it wasn’t the time to be sarcastic.

“Is the bleeding stopping?” Andre interrupted, more concerned about Robbie’s nose. 

“I…” The male pulled the tissue away and winced at the red stained on it. Almost immediately, more blood trickled out. “I think I hit it too hard.” 

“Alright, well, can you breathe?” Beck checked, sweeping a hand through his hair. It was definitely a lot more blood than a normal nosebleed would have, but then again, he _did_ fall on his face hard enough to fill a whole pail with blood. 

Robbie paused momentarily before he placed the tissue back. Jade scrunched her eyebrows in disgust, pulling out more tissues and holding the wad out to the curly-haired boy. 

“Not really well.” He admitted as he exchanged the stained ones he had for the fresh ones Jade was holding out to them. 

“Alright, I think we better get him to the hospital.” Tori raised eyebrows, hands on her hips. “Though I’m not sure if he can fly with a bleeding nose.” 

“Maybe we can bandage a fresh bunch of tissues against his nose?” Cat supplied, finally not feeling so horrified her boyfriend’s nose was bleeding. Though, still horrified. “Or we could just get a flying cab.”

“I think a cab would be better, but those are expensive.” The tanner brunette sighed, starting to pace around her living room like she always did when she was stressed.

“I’ll call a cab.” Jade piped up, making them turn to her. She, however, ignored their looks as she dialed a number on her phone and walked away to speak into it.

“But those are _really_ expensive.” Tori exclaimed, eyes widening while she watched Jade walk away. 

“Don’t worry about it.” Beck stated, giving Robbie more tissues as the brunette walked back, phone in hand.

“They’ll be here in five minutes.” 

“Okay, let’s… move Robbie to the entrance.” Andre nodded, helping the boy to stand up. “Can you walk?”

“... Yeah. I’m a little dizzy.” Robbie admitted, to which Andre grabbed one of his arms to lift it over his shoulder, and Beck grabbed the other, hoisting it over his shoulder as well.

They helped Robbie to the door, Tori running over to open it before the cab pulled up. The driver grimaced at the bloodstained tissues, nodding for them to get in. “Sorry kids, but my car can only fit four people at most.” 

The group shared glances as the boys loaded Robbie into the car. Obviously Cat was going, because her boyfriend was injured, but the redhead couldn’t be trusted by herself. Tori looked way too worried about Robbie, and Andre was, well, stronger than Beck.

“Okay, I’ll go with Cat and Robbie,” Tori piped up at last, turning to get into the cab next to the couple. “Andre will come with me. Um. Beck, can you and Jade house-sit for me? Nobody’s home right now.” 

“Sure.” Beck agreed, raising a hand to catch the keys Andre tossed to him on the way out. “Give us a call if anything happens.” 

“Will do!” was the reply he got before the passenger door shut behind Andre and the cab pulled off, flying towards their destination. 

He turned back to see Jade leaning against the door frame, looking at him with her ocean eyes. Slowly, he walked back to the house, giving her a reassuring smile.

“Guess we’re house-sitting together.” 

“Ugh, just what I needed, alone time with _you._ ”

She rolled her eyes, turning to retreat back into the house and effectively slapping the tip of his nose with her long hair. Her floral-scented shampoo wafted past him, lingering in the air as he stood there, watching her.

“Shut the door, Oliver!” 

Beck complied, stepping through the doorway and pulling it shut. He walked over to the table and set the keys aside, wondering what they were going to do now that they were alone for god knows how long. He drank in the sight of the girl seated on the sofa, legs crossed as she surfed through the channels, lips pursed. Well, time with a gorgeous being like her was always good. Probably. Hopefully their friends didn’t take too long to come back.

He prayed he wouldn’t be murdered. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm super sorry for the wait!!! it's almost a month since the last chapter, i made this one longer than usual to make up for it. hopefully the formatting isn't thrown off by the texts (´｡• ω •｡`) i might be able to go back to my office to work starting next month, so hopefully i can keep up the updates along with my island on animal crossing lol. but anyway, i hope you enjoy, and as usual, tell me what you think!


	8. Chapter 8

After a good fifteen to twenty minutes of flicking through the channels, Jade had decided to settle on one documentary about the lives of penguins — emperor penguins! — in the wild. Something about watching the babies waddling around was calming, distracting her from the fact that she was alone with Beck. 

Hold on. Why did it even matter that they were alone together? She had no plans to fall in love with him for the sole reason they were soulmates. Just because he was a little cute… Okay, he was  _ pretty  _ cute, but that didn’t mean that she had feelings for him. Seriously. They had only met for a little over twenty-four hours, and despite the fact that she’d trust him with her life out of the whole group, she was  _ not  _ going to be one of those ‘ohmigod we’re soulmates let me jump into your arms and we can ride off into the sunset of happily ever after’ girls she hated seeing in the past.

The brunette watched with her eyebrows pinched together as the baby penguins on screen huddled into a defensive circle while a wild predator swooped down, staring at them from afar. Somehow… the chicks reminded her of a certain floppy-haired boy seated next to her, her eyes flitting sideways to glance at him… kind of being in her space…  _ why was he looking at her?!  _

“What.” Jade snapped icily, as if she hadn’t been looking at him seconds ago. She raised an eyebrow, daring her companion to say something stupid. 

“Nothing,” he replied, sinking down on the plush sofa slightly before he decided it was a good time to pour himself more soda. Think, Oliver, think. You’re an actor, make up a believable excuse. “Just… you’re really pretty, you know that?”

“Yes, I know, I have a mirror at home.” She scowled at him, crossing her arms before she picked up her coffee, downing whatever was left in it. “Ugh. Now I have no more coffee.”

“Y’know, soda has caffeine too.” Beck pointed out, taking a sip out of his sweet, sweet beverage and raising his eyebrows at her. 

He found himself the sole subject of those startling ocean eyes, and suddenly he’s swimming; he’s  _ drowning  _ in them — he blinked, looking down at his now-empty hand and flexed his fingers, searching for the cup that was there just seconds ago — and  _ oh.  _ There it is, dangling from Jade’s pretty (seriously, how was every inch of her so pretty?) fingers as she took a sip out of the cup. That was his. 

“Hey.” He chided, though he made no move to reclaim the cup, instead fixing her with a stare that he thought was his best withering one. To her, he just looked like a sad puppy that lost a toy. “That’s mine.”

“Yeah? It’s mine now.” She quipped, taking another sip and purposefully leaving a lipstick mark just to prove her point. She held out the cup with a proud smirk. “See?” 

Beck ruffled his hair and rolled his eyes at how immature she was, but snatched the cup back anyway, making a show of drinking from the spot she’d drank from. 

“Now it’s mine again.” He smirked, leaning back against the couch and basking in the afterglow of his victory. He was triumphant, he  _ won  _ — she rolled her eyes so far back he was sort of worried she’d lose them in the back of her head. 

“Dude.” The brunette wondered if she should point out exactly  _ where  _ he had drank from, but then gave up because what was the point in saying that? That would just prove something. What, she wasn’t sure, but she didn’t want anything to be proven. “Whatever, you five year old.” 

She stood up, loose waves of brunette hair bouncing as she stomped to the kitchen and got herself a new cup. She then made a show of walking back and pouring herself a cup full of soda, raising her eyebrows at him while she took a swig. Okay. So maybe he didn’t win. The whole situation was hilarious, though, so he let slip a chuckle. She cracked a smile, and that was enough encouragement for him to start laughing, with her shaking her head as her smile widened.

“What are we, five?” He questioned once his laughing bout was done, heaving a tired sigh afterwards. “Seriously. That was the most childish thing ever.”

“I told you you were five, you five year old.” Jade rolled her eyes again, but a miniscule hint of her smile still remained on her lips. “Or maybe you’re three.”

Beck shoved her shoulder playfully, shaking his head with a fond smile as he turned his attention back to the documentary. 

“Hey, I would’ve shared if you asked.” He shook his head at her as she stared at him over her cup. “I’m generous like that.”

“Sure, whatever helps you sleep better at night.” She cast her eyes to the ceiling once more, before she turned to him.

“Hey, you started it.” Beck pointed out weakly, finishing his cup before he set it down to pour more soda. It felt like a century since their friends had left, when were they coming back? 

“Because you said soda had caffeine,” she gave him an exasperated look that called him stupid in thirty languages. “So I had some.”

“Out of my cup?” He asked, tilting his head.

“It just happened that you had some in your cup, so I helped myself.” She raised a brow, as if to ask if he had more questions. He grumbled wordlessly, leaning back against the cushions. Trust Jade to have a comeback for every single thing he said, he’d never win when it came to her.

Of course, he had to voice this to her.

“I’m never going to win, am I?” Beck heaved a deep sigh, meeting her eyes.

“Nope.” She replied brazenly, popping the p as a victorious look crossed her features. Something about the mirth dancing in her eyes made his heart flutter.

Suddenly the soft narration from the television seemed to fade away, he watched as the soft glow illuminated her features, her blue, blue,  _ blue  _ eyes just staring right through him, leaving him breathless. He looked away, not wanting to keep swimming in those limpid pools of blue. The penguins on screen sliding around on their bellies were a cute, welcome distraction.

“Oh, right.” Jade muttered, making him look at her involuntarily as she turned to look for her bag, pulling out a neatly folded pile of clothes. “Here. Your shirt and pants. I washed and ironed them.”

“Oh.” He breathed in reply, taking them and reaching for his backpack to tuck them in. “Thanks, you didn’t have to.”

“Nah it’s no big deal. I had to do my own laundry anyway, so they might smell like the detergent I use.” With a casual shrug, she turned her attention back to the television once more, placing her bag on the carpet before she stared at it. “Should we… try and remove  _ that  _ from the carpet?” 

From the slight disgust in her voice, he followed her gaze to a dark spot in the white carpet, grimacing a little. It was probably blood from Robbie’s nose, he hadn’t noticed it until she pointed it out, and he knew how particular Tori’s parents were about their carpet.

“... yeah, we probably should. Tori’s parents wouldn’t let her invite us over again if they find that.” He stood up, wondering what to do about the stain. Nobody ever taught him how to get blood out of a carpet. 

“It’s probably not too dry yet, we can try to get it out with water.” The brunette stood up, heading to the kitchen to gather the needed tools while Beck ran a hand through his hair in confusion. 

She came back seconds later equipped with a spray bottle filled with water, and a dry cloth, which she handed to him. 

“I’ll spray, you blot. Do not rub it.” She emphasized her words with a raised eyebrow, making him nod to acknowledge her clear instructions. They started the little cleanup with her spritzing some cold water onto the stain, and him coming in to dab the wet spot with the cloth. 

It took a few minutes, but thankfully they got most of it out, and the stain wasn’t as visible anymore. Jade groaned, leaning back against the sofa with the spray bottle in hand, and he finished the cleaning with a few more dabs of the cloth. 

“Well, it’s all out so we did it.” He told her encouragingly, giving her a little nudge as a playful grin blossomed on his face. “Also that was all my elbow grease. All you did was spray water.”

“Shut up. It takes effort to spray water.” She grumbled in return, but the mischievous glint in her eyes betrayed her faux irritation. He kept grinning, which led to Jade rolling her eyes and spritzing him with water to stop him ‘from being childish’, to which he protested he wasn’t a plant that needed watering — it wasn’t effective, and she continued to spritz water at him two more times.

“Okay, that’s it. I’m not a plant.” He snapped, albeit playfully, the grin still on his lips as he lunged at her, knocking her down as gently as he could. She shrieked, the bottle falling from her hand and limbs flailing whilst they grappled like little children.

After a few seconds of struggling (he was clearly much stronger than her, despite not looking like it) she gave up and huffed, heaving a huge sigh in defeat. 

“Okay, okay, you win,” Jade grumbled, becoming slightly pouty whilst she stopped putting strength into her hands so they could stop their childish romping. He laughed, hair falling over his eyes as he looked down at her triumphantly. 

Her long, dark tresses splayed out below her, blue eyes staring up at him curiously as they caught their breaths. The realisation that their hands were still locked together dawned on him suddenly, along with the new knowledge that her hands were very, very soft, made his mind totally blank. Her eyes were blue, like the ocean, and again he was drowning,  _ drowning—  _ there was no escape and he couldn’t get himself out of the trance he was transfixed in.

Next thing he knew, somehow her shampoo scent was stronger than before, making his mind whirl at a terrifying pace — he wasn’t exactly sure what was happening until his lips were pressed ever so softly against hers. His eyes almost fluttered shit until he remembered their little talk about being friends. Beck sprang up perhaps a second too late; the silence that followed was almost deafening as he nervously swept a hand through his hair. What the hell had he just done?

“I’m sorry,” he started, his anxiety skyrocketing as he began to pace in worry when she didn’t say a word. The front door swung open then — their friends walking back in whilst folding their wings, and Jade sprung up from where she had been lying on the floor and grabbed her bag.

“I have to go. Bye.” She uttered quickly, making their friends confused as she strode past them and left the house quickly. 

Tori turned to Beck, who seemed just as stunned as she was. “Oookay…? Did something happen while we were gone?”

“No.” The lie slipped out easier than expected, and he ran a hand through his hair. “Nothing happened. Let’s just finish lunch.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> on a scale of 1 - 10 how mad would you guys be if i were to delete this and rewrite it? ;w; i lost all motivation to continue...
> 
> UPDATE: i decided to rewrite a soulmate au for bade. (ㅇㅅㅇ❀) i'll delete this story in about a week so i hope you all will support me on the other story instead!! thank you so much for giving this burning heap of trash so much love <3
> 
> update 2: i found out i can orphan the work instead of deleting it!!! i’ll be keeping it as an orphaned work so you guys can reread it if you’d like. for any new readers, this story has been discontinued due to lost motivation, but i hope to see you all in my next one!! cheers!


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